Helene

[Warren Allison]

One dead in Fla, so far. 2 dead in Ga from a tornado so far. Just saw on the news that it is in GA now, and is down-graded to a cat 2. Nothing but rain so far up here. Falling straight down with no wind at all, but all the creeks are cresting. Down at the Kudzu place, Scott has Zeke spending the night at his house. Pancho ( I swear, I can never remember the man's name and I have known him 30 years. He and Scott call each other Cisco and Pancho, so I remember that!) and Bonito got their daughter and grandkids out of the trailer and into Matties house with them. No tornados, but 50 -60 mph straight line wins are taking down a lot of trees, They lost power before it got dark. The creek running the edge of the Kudzu place is out of the banks, and covering the road to our other place, the old row crop place. about 250-300 of the 400 acre fields are flooded, just the one 100 acre field and the old dove field are still above water, This is where my Brahma cows and Mike's Brangus bulls are. Scott hadn't sprigged those other 300 acres yet, thank God. We will lose a lot of timber on the new place I bought. Well, not a total loss, just will have to start harvesting what is down when it dries up. Scott will have a lot of damage in the orchard and his pecan grove, too. He and Zeke get in a cab tractor, and go check on things about every two hours.

Up here, my horses are just standing in the hall of the barn to stay dry. I think we gonna be ok, as long as Helene doesn't spawn any tornados up here. Clay said some of the lots in the lower places at Mike's, the cattle are standing nearly belly deep. I am going over there about 6AM, and soon as it is light, we will move them to some of the pens on higher ground. I pulled the shoes off Smoke and this other horse I just bought, because the mud will suck the shoes right off of them tomorrow when we are moving the cattle, and don't want it to tear chunks out of their hooves. At least it won't get below 79 to 77.. can't stand to be wet and cold!

 

[coachg]

Prayers for the families of those lost in the storms and all affected by Helene. We are getting much needed rain . I was going to wean 3 more heifer calves but decided to wait till after this passes . Glad to hear all is well for now Warren and hope you find everything good come morning.

 

[Warren Allison]

It has stopped raining uphere.. Just 2 roads in the county closed to flooding, but I went over both of them just now, Didn't even come up past the center of my wheels, so I expect they will open them soon. Sun is out and the winds are supposed to pick up this afternoon, 17-20 mph sustained, and this will really help dry things out.

We moved just 4 pens of Mike's calves....about 80 to a pen. It was up past their bellies in 2 of them. In water that deep, you don't need a cow horse or a cowboy to move cattle. He could have used his farm help on a plow horse! I guess he subscribes to Robert Ruark's philosophy, Use Enough Gun, so wanted me, Clay and his son there...just in case.

Down at the a Kudzu place, things are a lot different. Scott said no damage to the houses or buildings at his place, but he lost a lot of pecan and fruit trees. He said his late garden/truck farm plot is under water, but he said that was ok....he was tired of fooling with it anyhow. One of Zeke's chicken pens... the one where he keeps his bantams he sets quail eggs under...is under about 2 feet of water. But, Pedro had opened the door to the pen and let them out last night after Zeke went over to Scott's house. They will come back in a day or two,

At the kudzu place, the creek on the south side of it and my new place is about 150 yards out of its bank, and can't see fence in most places. We won't know if any of it is down til the water goes down. Across the road on the row crop land, you can't see the fence on the south side of it either, and 3 of the new fields are flooded. You can see the fence on the 2 fartherest north pastures, though. All of the cattle are ok. Scott took the tractor over to the new place I bought, and yeah, lot of pines down. But that's ok.. we will just turn them into pulp wood when the ground dries some. And, 2 of the last bred Corrs I bought had calves last nigh or this morning! I bought them as bred to an Angus bull, and they both have solid black calves. He couldn't get close enough to see the sex of them for sure, but they appeared to be heifers. That is what I like about them. A cowboy who has never had anything but Corriente cattle, is like a Maytag repairman: They have ZERO experience pulling calves, or dealing with prolapses, or cows that reject their calves, or don't have enough milk!

 

[Warren Allison]

@Mountaintown Creek Ranch , how is it where you are?

 

[Logan52]

Couple of inches of rain and close to 50 mph wind gusts here today. The remains of Helene passed over about noon.
My wife had baked a couple of cushaw pies and we decided to take one to my brother in town who is sick.
Well, a giant hackberry and a smaller elm had blown down across our drive out of sight from the house. Back to get the chainsaw and an hour in the pouring rain to clear a path we could get through.
We have had over 3 inches of rain over the last two days. Normally that would bring the creek up full, roaring to the edge of its banks. Only a small
clear flow, barely running, that is how dry it has been here.

 

[Ky hills]

Lot of rain and wind here. Some tin blown up on a storage building, will have to check fences for downed trees as soon as I can.
Reports of trees down blocking roads all over the county several along our road from what I understand.
Our electric hasn’t gone out but lights has flickered quite a bit. It is out in many areas around.
Just saw where a building had collapsed in town.
Got soaked a couple times this morning, one feeding and another cleaning out around a storm water drain at the bottom of a basement stairwell, trying to keep debris from blocking it up.
Scary to think about what the folks in the initial and close by path of it will be dealing with, seeing how destructive it was this far away here.

 

[coachg]

All is well on our farm ! Had a little over 3.5 inches in my rain gauge . First creek as we call it was running a nice stream of water. That hasn't happened since late June . Ponds all looked better but none running out . Most of the cattle were laying down acting contented. Rode through all the different pastures. No trees down that I could find , lots of small limbs and leaves on the ground.

 

[firemen122]

The eye missed our farm by about 10 miles here in Florida. We were very blessed trees down, barns beat up but still standing, siding lost off the house, fences down etc. The house and all the buildings are still standing, no dead cattle or critters. The folks a little closer to the coast lost everything pretty much. The house shook for several hours. Would just as soon not go through anymore. That is the second one in a few months and the 3rd in little over a year. We have had our fair share for a while.

 

[Caustic Burno]

One dead in Fla, so far. 2 dead in Ga from a tornado so far. Just saw on the news that it is in GA now, and is down-graded to a cat 2. Nothing but rain so far up here. Falling straight down with no wind at all, but all the creeks are cresting. Down at the Kudzu place, Scott has Zeke spending the night at his house. Pancho ( I swear, I can never remember the man's name and I have known him 30 years. He and Scott call each other Cisco and Pancho, so I remember that!) and Bonito got their daughter and grandkids out of the trailer and into Matties house with them. No tornados, but 50 -60 mph straight line wins are taking down a lot of trees, They lost power before it got dark. The creek running the edge of the Kudzu place is out of the banks, and covering the road to our other place, the old row crop place. about 250-300 of the 400 acre fields are flooded, just the one 100 acre field and the old dove field are still above water, This is where my Brahma cows and Mike's Brangus bulls are. Scott hadn't sprigged those other 300 acres yet, thank God. We will lose a lot of timber on the new place I bought. Well, not a total loss, just will have to start harvesting what is down when it dries up. Scott will have a lot of damage in the orchard and his pecan grove, too. He and Zeke get in a cab tractor, and go check on things about every two hours.

Up here, my horses are just standing in the hall of the barn to stay dry. I think we gonna be ok, as long as Helene doesn't spawn any tornados up here. Clay said some of the lots in the lower places at Mike's, the cattle are standing nearly belly deep. I am going over there about 6AM, and soon as it is light, we will move them to some of the pens on higher ground. I pulled the shoes off Smoke and this other horse I just bought, because the mud will suck the shoes right off of them tomorrow when we are moving the cattle, and don't want it to tear chunks out of their hooves. At least it won't get below 79 to 77.. can't stand to be wet and cold!

Hurricane is always bad news!
It’s always the water that’s the worst.
I remember back in 79 I was living on the coastal plain and we had a system that dropped 42” in 24 hours on us.
That was before the 24 hour news cycle. That was the record rainfall for 24 hours, might get beat when every thing is figured up. That was an eye opener to how much damage water can cause.

 

[puzzled in oregon]

The destruction is appalling. It would be miserable coming out of winter and have this to deal with, these people are heading into winter and looking at years not just weeks or months of cleanup.

 

[Caustic Burno]

The destruction is appalling. It would be miserable coming out of winter and have this to deal with, these people are heading into winter and looking at years not just weeks or months of cleanup.

They is high likelihood they are gonna get hit again.
Everything is shaping up for a repeat.
Nothing really unusual about this system that hammered these poor people typical hurricane.
It’s what they do.

 

[simme]

I think the unusual part is the mountains. Rainfall total in Asheville was 14". Some areas received as much as 30". I know that is not high rainfall for a hurricane in the flatlands. But that is a huge amount of water in the mountains. Rain on the mountains end up in the valleys. Where the depth multiplies many times over.

 

[Caustic Burno]

I think the unusual part is the mountains. Rainfall total in Asheville was 14". Some areas received as much as 30". I know that is not high rainfall for a hurricane in the flatlands. But that is a huge amount of water in the mountains. Rain on the mountains end up in the valleys. Where the depth multiplies many times over.

You should see it stack up in flat country.
Harvey dropped 55" here over a couple days.
It's always the water in the hurricane that is so destructive.
Lot has to do with the news coverage.
Entire community wiped out on the coast or inland is heartbreaking.
What’s more heartbreaking is our government shipping billions overseas and nothing to our citizens.

 

[hillbilly beef man]

Erwin TN. The second picture is the I 26 bridge that is cut into. Mother nature is undefeated.

 

[greybeard]

You should see it stack up in flat country.
Harvey dropped 55" here over a couple days.
It's always the water in the hurricane that is so destructive.
Lot has to do with the news coverage.
Entire community wiped out on the coast or inland is heartbreaking.
What's more heartbreaking is our government shipping billions overseas and nothing to our citizens.

It certainly does 'stack up' in flatland, but ... In hilly or mountain areas, the water's velocity plays a much bigger role. So does the amount of debris that the high velocity water carries with it.
The relatively slow moving water that flooded me and Houston in Harvey was bad but increase that water's velocity 100 x or even 10x and the destruction and loss of life would increase exponentially.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Erwin TN. The second picture is the I 26 bridge that is cut into. Mother nature is undefeated.
View attachment 50246View attachment 50247

View attachment 50245

Horrible to see, many are seeing a hurricane for the first time.
Helene got trapped and slowed by cold fronts and didn’t keep pulling right .
At initial landfall it’s storm surge the inland flooding comes when they downgrade to TS and stall.
As hurricane go Helene wasn’t a “bad” storm ! It was no where close to Camille that hit Gulfport or Carla on the upper Texas coast.
I can’t imagine those storms today with the population explosion.
I can’t imagine Rita here today compared to 20 years ago, that was the most intense hurricane ever recorded in the gulf with today’s population.
Hurricanes suck all they bring is death and destruction to millions,my family has seen both.
My wife’s dad was a victim of Carla.
I buried family in Rita.
That’s one of the reasons I always got upset when someone would wish for rain inland from a hurricane.

 

[Caustic Burno]

It certainly does 'stack up' in flatland, but ... In hilly or mountain areas, the water's velocity plays a much bigger role. So does the amount of debris that the high velocity water carries with it.
The relatively slow moving water that flooded me and Houston in Harvey was bad but increase that water's velocity 100 x or even 10x and the destruction and loss of life would increase exponentially.

I agree they have velocity of the mountain there is also a little velocity in a 25’ storm surge as well.
Everyone’s bull is getting gored .

 

[kenny thomas]

Im in downtown Augusta GA now. Got here late last night so i will see the danage when it gets daylight. We have 2 police officers guarding us. Have been told not to go anywhere without police escorts. Im sleeping in the cab of my truck and eating pop tarts so not likely to be going far.

 

[greybeard]

I've seen what storm surge does and how it works on beach property. The surge has ocean/GoM waves that batter or undercut the 1st row of houses down to unrecognizable debris, and said waves hurl that debris and it's own energy against the next row of structures, tearing them down even quicker than the first row, then the now bigger pile of debris goes crashing against the next structures until the surge has expended it's energy and strength and you have a 30 mile long x 20' high pile of what used to be homes and businesses 5or more miles inland.
In the hills & mountains, it all happens at once, just as it does out in central and southwest Texas in flash floods that come hurling thru canyons.
I've seen old pictures of what San Angelo looked like when the placid little stream called the Concho River flash flooded and washed much of the city away in a matter of minutes, resulting in what back them was the longest earthen dam in the US being built.

 

[simme]

A story of a private helicopter pilot ordered to stop his Helene rescue operation or else be arrested.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/pilot-flying-helene-rescue-missions-154942261.html