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Hurricane Category 4 Hurricane Helene

Wind damage from Helene all the way up into Ohio, with substantial power outages.

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Well this, from the current Lexington FD, sounds very good -- not the extended torrential soaker I was envisioning!

However, the system is
expected to stall and persistent moderate rainfall could still cause
some localized flooding issues overnight. So far today though...the
drought and the never-really-heavy rainfall has kept us from having
any reports of flooding. Just a good ditch-filler and hopefully
drought buster.

A little ray of sunshine, anyway.
 
Whoa - no wonder they said imminent failure at Lake Lure. That right side.... yikes. Hope it continues to hold.
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I didn't realize how crazy this video was until I Google Street viewed Chimney Rock and this cafe in the video. Chimney Rock really is just... gone. So sad - it was such a cute little place.
 
This has got to be the most FFE type warnings issued since Harvey.

Edit: it is

Flash Flood Emergencies during Harvey: 20
Flash Flood Emergencies during Helene: 30
 
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Haven't found any footage of the Rocky Mount tornado as of yet, but another tornado was filmed near Henderson. Pretty incredible footage:

Small but powerful. These types of tornadoes have always been so fascinating.
 
And the main reason why you have more FFE with this is because the moisture is hitting up against the Appalachian Mountains creating a sponge type affect where the mountains are helping to squeeze out as much moisture as possible. I just hope this doesn't turn into a Hurricane Camille West Virginia event. Chief Meteorologist Aubrey Urbanowicz did a great presentation on it a few years back at the MS State Severe Storm Symposium.
 
Never a good sign when the death toll on the first day is close to half a hundred, I fear this could come close or even surpass Ian in terms of number of fatalities.

I don’t think this will be the costliest storm on record mainly because the bulk of the storm hit swamps, definitely could get close to Ian’s damage cost.

Even though the wind damage is lacking, (understandably so since again, bulk of the storm hit swamp land), the surge absolutely verified.

Places like Keaton beach have been mostly wiped off the map and others like horseshoe beach, Steinhatchee. and cedar key are devastated.

The NHC have already confirmed 15ft+ surge along the coast and I would imagine the peak will be close to the maximum 20ft predicted.

To say nothing of the biblical levels of flooding across the central eastern states, it’s shocking to me the shear ferocity of hurricane landfalls in the big bend area since 2016.

5 hurricanes with 3 being majors and most astonishing 2 being cat4+, the big bend in 173 years of record keeping has never seen a cat4 hurricane and now they’ve been hit with a cat5 and cat4 in the span of 6 years.

The big bend of Florida was literally known for being a “safe spot” from hurricanes because they use to hit so rarely but now they’re getting rocked pretty much every year now.

Safe to say Helene’s 60+ year run time as a name is over and done now.
 
Right now, most of the reported deaths from Helene are not on the coast in Florida but well inland away from the coast.
I'd imagine most of the deaths when it's all said and done will be in East TN/Western NC/SC
 
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Never a good sign when the death toll on the first day is close to half a hundred, I fear this could come close or even surpass Ian in terms of number of fatalities.

I don’t think this will be the costliest storm on record mainly because the bulk of the storm hit swamps, definitely could get close to Ian’s damage cost.

Even though the wind damage is lacking, (understandably so since again, bulk of the storm hit swamp land), the surge absolutely verified.

Places like Keaton beach have been mostly wiped off the map and others like horseshoe beach, Steinhatchee. and cedar key are devastated.

The NHC have already confirmed 15ft+ surge along the coast and I would imagine the peak will be close to the maximum 20ft predicted.

To say nothing of the biblical levels of flooding across the central eastern states, it’s shocking to me the shear ferocity of hurricane landfalls in the big bend area since 2016.

5 hurricanes with 3 being majors and most astonishing 2 being cat4+, the big bend in 173 years of record keeping has never seen a cat4 hurricane and now they’ve been hit with a cat5 and cat4 in the span of 6 years.

The big bend of Florida was literally known for being a “safe spot” from hurricanes because they use to hit so rarely but now they’re getting rocked pretty much every year now.

Safe to say Helene’s 60+ year run time as a name is over and done now.

Oh yeah, she deserves to be retired twice over after this.
 
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