2018 Hurricane Season

Do you fall under Gov McMaster's evacuation order?

My dog hates to travel as well....ask the vet if there is something that can sedate the poor thing and get out. (PS and take the pup with you) We are in Annapolis and expect the storm to be weaker by the time it gets here, but we will probably lose some siding, roof tiles and of course the power. We have well water and septic systems and when the power goes out, so does everything else.

For all the people in the storms path, please be careful and evacuate if instructed, err on the side of caution. Property can be repaired or replaced, but you can't.....please take care.

One other tip, lower the brightness on your cell phone and iPad, it will stay powered up longer.

No, wrong Carolina. Honestly I was surprised at his order. Charleston is going to get tropical force winds, but nothing that would cause a mandatory evacuation. Evacuating Myrtle Beach north makes sense, all of the SC coast seems like significant overkill.

What's worse? To make a terrible mistake in the direction of overreaction and overkill? No one gets hurt. No one gets killed. Some people are mildly inconvenienced at worst. Or to be too complacent and have several or more people dead because no warning or evacuation was officially brought up?

My daughter's college is in its path - although fortunately they are inland so hopefully it has weaken by then. They have alerted the students if they are on the first floor of their dorm to move to one of the higher floors. School has not yet been canceled yet but may be Thursday and Friday.

Being in a valley doesn't help in regards to flooding. She is talking about going to a friend's house that is 90 minutes away - they are in the mountains so will be in higher ground.

It's more complicated than that. All those people in southern SC are fleeing into central SC and Georgia, the exact places where people from northern SC and NC are trying to go. Hotel rooms are gone, gas is getting scarce, ATM's are empty, even inland. There are a lot more people fighting for the same emergency resources. People from here are trying to go to Florence or Columbia and finding no room at the inn. There's nothing wrong with issuing a voluntary evacuation order for areas at lower risk but a mandatory evacuation for a million people most of which are not in the storm path can be worse than a mild inconvenience.

Fair enough. Maybe I shouldn't have posted being I have never been unfortunate enough to have fallen under any mandatory evacuation orders (so far) in my life.

Report from ground zero

After a detailed discussion, we decided to stay (as did all of my neighbors, a testament to either how high and dry my neighborhood is or how stupid we are). The first winds are gusting now and the first bands of rain are expected in an hour or so. The eye is expected here around 8am tomorrow.

Will be checking here for your updates as you are able to provide them. Be safe. Check in when you can.

I've been looking at the Surf City pier photos - Florence isn't even there yet so many great memories of walking there and sitting on the beach watching the sun rise.

Will do, thanks. Not sure when the power will go out, but sure that it will sometime so updates might be limited.

do you have a genny?

I do, but they are more pain than they are worth and it's hard keeping them gassed up. I have lots of backup power for my cell phone, but that requires the cell towers to be up. Wilmington has a lot of recent hurricane experience so it will be interesting to see how fast they get the infrastructure back on line.

Hope things are ok today.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/weather/hurricane/os-hurricane-florence-update-0914-story.html#


Hurricane Florence came ashore with howling 90-mph winds Friday morning, producing life-threatening storm surges and hurricane-force winds as it moves through the Carolinas, the National Hurricane Center said.

At 2 p.m., Florence was centered about 35 miles west-southwest of Wilmington, North Carolina, and about 35 miles east-northeast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Its maximum sustained winds are 75 mph — down since it made landfall as a strong Category 1 storm near Wrightsville Beach, N.C., which is a few miles east of Wilmington and not far from the South Carolina state line, at 7:15 a.m.

Florence is crawling west at 5 mph.

The storm already has left more than 500,000 homes and businesses without power.

The hurricane is expected to move inland over parts of North Carolina and South Carolina on Friday and Saturday, “then move generally northward across the western Carolinas and the central Appalachian Mountains early next week.’’

Florence’s storm surge and the prospect of 1 to 3½ feet of rain were considered a bigger threat than its winds, which dropped off from an alarming 140 mph — Category 4 — earlier in the week. Forecasters said catastrophic freshwater flooding is expected well inland over the next few days as Florence crawls westward across the Carolinas all weekend.

The area is expected to get about as much rain in three days as Hurricanes Dennis and Floyd dropped in two weeks in 1999.

Just an update, 2 days with no power, finally got some cell coverage back. Stores are opening here and there depending on who has power and there are long lines to get essentials. Lots of trees down, some flooding, but everyone in my house is safe and sound.

Really good to hear that you made it through safely.