stay safe

illead

Thinking about all of you in the path of Hurricane Matthew and hoping and praying that all of you will be safe and also hope you don't suffer any damage. 

Bill and Becky

Max Former Hodgkins Stage 3

Thanks

Thanks Becky.

Most of my relatives are in Charleston. I was living there at my parents in 1989 when Hugo hit. I was still unable to walk well at that time, following my auto crash in December, 1986.   Awendaw, SC, just above Mt Pleasant outside Charleston recoreded 174 MPH gusts.  The storm had sustained 140 MPH winds at landfall.  It was regarded as one of the worst Atlantic hurricanes in history at the time, and the worst since 1900 (see article).  Although we were about 25 miles inland, we saw a police cruiser go down the street sideways behind our house a few hours before the eye hit.  There was no radio or tv locally afterwards.  Stations have emergency generators, but most towers blew down.  We listened to WAPE AM out of Jacksonville, Fl for a few days on battery.  We heard the classic "freight train" roar several times, which is supposed to be tornados. The house (two story) rocked back and forth a lot, enough to make it hard to walk,  and the chimny was about 5 inches from the frame afterwards. Numerous houses in the neighborhood were levelled to the ground or crushed by trees. Apparantly they were empty for there to not have beend deaths.

The "eye" crossed our house about 1:00 AM, and I went outside: perfect calm, no wind, I could see the stars.  Then. 140 mph winds again, from the other direction.  This caused all of the pine forests to look like infinite "X" patterns.  Half the trees blew over in one direction, and then after the eye (which blows the other way) the other half blew over in the other direction.   It was bizarre: whole national forests blown over in "X" patterns.  The Willki Article says that in just the Francis Marion Natinal FOrest, 8,800 square MILES of timber was lost (my cousin lived in the Francis Marion).

The next day was perfectly sunny and calm, no clouds, but very hot and extremely humid. We were without electricity for 11 days, but a cousin inland, west of Awendaw went without power for 21 days.  Sixty foot yachts on city streets downtown, etc.  There was still a Navy base there then (shuttered in 1993), and all ships had to go to sea, or be beaten to pieces along the piers.   I worked at the College of Charleston at the time, and our secretarie's son was one of only 27 people in the state who died from the storm.  He had taken his cabin cruiser up the Cooper River, but was swamped and drowned. His body was never found.

Significant damage through central NC, and wind damage reported in some parts as far as Ohio.  My aunt lived in Georgetown, SC, when Hazel went through decades earlier. It is hurricane country for certain.

On the Hurricane Severity Index, Hugo outscored Katrina (2005: New Orleans) by a score of 40 vs. 36.  Hugo was also significantly larger. But of course Katrina killed vastly more people, mostly from drowning.

It appears this storm (Matthew) will skirt just offshore, and hopefully not be too bad. Nothing like Hugo for certain.

September 21 was Hurricane Hugo day, my wife's birthday, and the day we got engaged.  I later dubbed it a whirlwind romance.

max

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Hugo

Use arrows to cycle through these 28 amazing photos: 

http://photos.denverpost.com/2014/09/19/photos-hurricane-hugo-struck-25-years-ago-september-21-22-1989/#1

illead

wow

That is quite a memory. We had three hurricanes during the time we had the condo in Cabo but were not there during the time. Two did not do much damage but the other one was Odilel a couple years ago and they are still recuperating but no damage to our condo. We were in Nags Head with a group of friends renting a house on the beach when hurricane Ophelia was supposed to hit but she flaked out so we just got rain and some strong winds. Jim Cantore was reporting from a restaurant down the beach and trying to act like the wind was blowing him around, we knew it was safe to stay. Our friends lived in Puerto Rico when a bad one hit quite a few years ago and then our son and daughter-in-law who live in Queens New York went through Hurricane Sandy. No damage to them but a lot near Rockaway beach  etc. so they did disaster relief for many months after that. Saw on the Weather Channel this morning a couple visiting from somewhere else laughing and carrying on about the fact that they are not leaving but staying because they think it will be fun. Thanks for the pictures, but I will have to look at them later we are where the internet is pretty sketchy but will be home tomorrow.

Again we hope the best for everyone involved.

 

Unknown

Matthew

Looks like my house in the Outer Banks will dodge the bullet this time. At least that is what we are hoping for. I was on Guam in 1976 for Typhoon Pamela, the strongest winds and lowest Barometric pressures ever recorded at that time. 220 mph gusts at the station where I worked on the southern part of the Island, a village named Dan Dan. Don't need any more of that! No power for for 3 mos.! Standing by with the travel trailer in case we need to go to Kill Devil Hills but hoping we don't. Hope your family is prepared Max. Flooding is the biggest issue. Our NC house sits on 10 foot high posts on Albemarle sound and was almost breached in 2007. We lose the dock about once every 5 years and its not covered by insurance like the house. Drowning is definitely a big risk, especially for children, the elderly and disabled. Also for the poor, poor dogs,deer etc.! In 2007 we had deer carcasses all over the neighborhood. Very smelly. And mosquitos were awful in the storms aftermath.

Max Former Hodgkins Stage 3

Update

My relatives are in Summerville, not downtown.  Where they are has no chance of flooding, thankfully. Power will probably go down, manybe for days or a week or more.  Virtually all stores in the area have been closed, some for days.  Still not a comfortable place to be of course, and maybe not even safe.  The Port of Charleston is closed of course, and the Coast Guard announced that they will not make rescue flights.   My mother-in-law is in North Charleston across from the AFB. It might be worse there.

My brother just told me that the reversal of I-26 went virtually ignored, few people left.  Most of the wealthy on the islands today are from the Northeast, and have never been in a hurricane, and really have no understanding of it.

I spoke with my cousin in Orlando yesterday, and they were not going anywhere. Matthew made landfall at Cape Canaveral, which is exactly due east of Orlando, plus Orlando is about 50 miles inland, so they should be fine.

The fact that Florida has had minimal brushes with the storm means that Savannah and Charleston are most-likely the bull's eye for it.  They expect 80-90 MPH winds in Charleston by 2:00 AM tonight.  GKH's property on the NC Outer Banks might see a worse scenario than anticipated two days ago.

I am perfectly safe where we live, near the NC/Hendersonville state line.

Safety and prayers for all,

max

Max Former Hodgkins Stage 3

Final Storm Post

Well, Hurrricane Matthew finally got here. Offical US Landfall at McClellanville, SC, (a shrimpboat village) just a few miles north of Charleston, and literally less than 10 miles from the Landfall spot of Hugo. ("Landfall" refers to where the eyewall of the storm first crosses land.)

Forecasts had expected landfall around 2:00 AM, and my brother called me at about 5:00 AM and said, "This has been nothing so far." But he called again at 7:00, and said "It's here !"  Not a lot of structural damage, but heavy flooding on the immediate coast.  Summerville probably had some gusts of 75 mph.

The storm is moving inland, will get Myrtle Beach pretty hard, with many areas expecting a foot of rain. Coastal NC should see extreme rain, but not severe winds.  We have had 35 MPH gusts where I live , 200 miles inland, but virtually no rain, and no power loss.

FInal post from me on this issue that many were concerned about. I have a friend at the Prostate Board who was scheduled for surgery in the middle of the state, and am sure he was undoubtedly postponed.  But SC is in the extreme inconvenience stage, not the extreme danger stage now.

max

Unknown

Yes ...

looks like KDH is expecting 12-18 inches of rain and 60 mph winds. Streets will be flooded but we usually do 60 mph with little or no damage - except of course for the dock. Mosquitos will probably be awful once this passes.