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OT: Helene

jeffbear said:
The commercial district of Boone is getting cleaned up pretty quickly but there was a lot of damage to the lower side of 321 where those creeks cut through ... around the mall through that area around Lowe's. 321 is mostly wide open between Boone and Wilkesboro and DOT looks like they're finishing repairs to the damaged section of NC105 cutting off Boone from Linville which will make things a lot easier for both communities as that's a heavily traveled corridor. There's still a ton of damage to clean up but getting the primary roadways passable makes a huge difference. Ingles is a main supermarket in WNC and Upstate SC and their huge warehouse near Old Fort east of Asheville is fully operational again. That will help a lot as well. There's still a huge need for bottled water as almost everybody is either offline or on a boil before consuming notice.
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I did an ambulance base just west of Vilas in 2017. I hope it's being a big service to Watauga folks now.
 
Tryamw said:
It's good they've got what they have done done. But as we know more to go and it'll get harder from here
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True. As with all things, you need to establish basic services first before you can really start to make headway on the complicated stuff. Communications became a huge nightmare because of the switch to wireless. Regular old landline service is a LOT easier to repair on an emergency basis than trying to fix cell towers in remote mountainous locations. Getting upgraded satellite coverage has helped, but that only goes so far. But getting 40 (from the east) and 26 (from the south) open into Asheville and getting 321 and NC 105 into Boone makes everybody's jobs more do-able because those are major roads that can handle the tractor trailer traffic you need to get people, supplies and equipment up there. Those are huge milestones and big props to the DOT, NCNG and the various other utility crews for all they've gotten done this week. The next big infrastructure issue is water and sewer, and there is still PLENTY of roadworks and bridges left to repair.
 
I've seen photos of a convoy of trucks hauling new water or sewer pipes in the Asheville area. An Asheville hospital lost access to its water supply and within five days, they got their water access back with a new well. That's pretty impressive work there.
 
People are going whinge on forever about I40 being closed at the Tennessee border, but that thing has gotten washed out for months on end many times before. It's not near the top of anybody's priority list and may be the single most complicated engineering job of the whole lot.
 
jeffbear said:
People are going whinge on forever about I40 being closed at the Tennessee border, but that thing has gotten washed out for months on end many times before. It's not near the top of anybody's priority list and may be the single most complicated engineering job of the whole lot.
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Y'all obviously know more about such things than me, but we had a big mountain road washed out from rain 3 years ago or so and they were able to reopen in about 3 weeks due to its importance (same re a bridge on I5 south which is the major west coast highway. Isn't important to get the major roads open or are there others in the area?

I hope y'all didn't suffer too much.
 
TheCountofMonteCristo said:
Y'all obviously know more about such things than me, but we had a big mountain road washed out from rain 3 years ago or so and they were able to reopen in about 3 weeks due to its importance (same re a bridge on I5 south which is the major west coast highway. Isn't important to get the major roads open or are there others in the area?

I hope y'all didn't suffer too much.
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I would say that because of the geography, the wipeout of some sections is more analogous to what happened when the PCH fell into the ocean. There is rock on one side, the road and then a sheer drop off on the other. And the roadbed washed away.
 
That section of I40 has several US highway work-arounds. It routinely closes for winter storms with no real interruption to commercial traffic and was knocked out for flooding for at least two very long periods since it was opened. Yeah, it's a major highway corridor, but not to the degree you'd think. Honestly, getting I26 north of Asheville re-opened is as important if not more and it's also not on a set schedule yet. Nobody's talking about that ... or nobody that's not from WNC. Once US25/70 gets fixed next week, there will be the same roadways through that stretch that existed for decades before I40 was finally completed.
 
NoMich said:
How's 64 holding up?
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There's a section out between Highlands and Franklin but it's scheduled to be cleared next week. I think it's mostly mud and rock slide damage. It's the washouts and sinkholes that take more time.

What's weird is that the old mountain highway US23 that runs all the way from Silva to the Atlanta suburbs is fine. Used to be the main moonshiner's route. Really cool territory up there.
 
Corp of Engineers went in and built out artificial subsurface support the last time it blew out. Not sure they'll want to do that again, depending on the cost/benefit analysis. If they decide to blow into the rock to widen the available surface, it's gonna take awhile. Just depends on the engineering.
 
Future hurricane, Milton, is forming in the Gulf and will probably hit the Tampa Bay area before heading up the coast to our neck of the woods. Tampa Bay also got hit hard by Helene.
 
I went to Boone today to help my daughter’s old roommates salvage some stuff. The pictures do it no justice. The damage is tremendous and widespread. Brought this grown man to tears seeing what these fine people are going through. I wish I were rich and could do more.
 
Fayettenamcanesfan said:
I went to Boone today to help my daughter’s old roommates salvage some stuff. The pictures do it no justice. The damage is tremendous and widespread. Brought this grown man to tears seeing what these fine people are going through. I wish I were rich and could do more.
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Yeah, we're heading up at the end of the month to do what we can. Our house near Foscoe is still cut off but access should be opened up by then. We've had word that we don't have any damage, just can't get there yet and I'm not clogging up hotel rooms needed by others. Once I can get there without draining resources, I'll go
 
Fayettenamcanesfan said:
I went to Boone today to help my daughter’s old roommates salvage some stuff. The pictures do it no justice. The damage is tremendous and widespread. Brought this grown man to tears seeing what these fine people are going through. I wish I were rich and could do more.
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I hate that my joints suck and that I no longer have 4WD or truck vehicles. Or tons of $$$. I've felt like a useless turd taking up space the last week.
We did go through the closets and drawers for clothing yesterday (found some old p/o tickets!) and I have a half dozen tarps someone can use, but still feel inadequate.
 
LJG said:
I hate that my joints suck and that I no longer have 4WD or truck vehicles. Or tons of $$$. I've felt like a useless turd taking up space the last week.
We did go through the closets and drawers for clothing yesterday (found some old p/o tickets!) and I have a half dozen tarps someone can use, but still feel inadequate.
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Don't kick yourself - every little bit helps. And they're gonna need help for a long time to come.
 
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