Working from home today (thanks to the hurricane), I just couldn't resist going over to the ocean to check it out (about 2 miles from my house). The rain had stopped and I stood out there on the sea wall for about an hour, totally mesmerized. I am humbled before the awesome power of moter nature. Debbie Reeves Sandy Hook, NJ *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
>...snipped... I am humbled before the awsome power of moter nature. I've always been impressed by fater time. ;-} Sorry, couldn't resist. Must be the effects of storm fever... Regards, Leander leander_at_worldnet.att.net *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
|The rain had stopped and I stood out there on the sea wall for about an hour, |totally mesmerized. I am humbled before the awesome power of moter nature. |Debbie Reeves |Sandy Hook, NJ After a sleepless night due to Mr. Floyd's visit to North Carolina I can report the big water is yet to come here in the Good Ol' South! Friday or Saturday the rivers are supposed to crest due to the heavy rain from Floyd. The areas that Mr. Floyd visited near the coast had at least 16, yes sixteen, inches of rain. The Tar river is going to crest 20 feet ABOVE flood stage! The Neuse is supposed to at 27 feet above flood stage on Tuesday. That is big water! 8-( My wife's grandmother has a farm on the Tar river lost a couple of century+ year old oaks and three pecan trees. I think her house is far/high enough from the river to not be in danger. We lucked out as being on the western edge of Floyd's Travels. We had 6 inches of rain in less than 24 hours. Thankfully this monster missed the triangle, Florida, and weakened before hitting the rest of the east coast. When Fran visited three years ago many people where without power for 5 to 7 days. Worse was the large number of houses that had trees fall on houses. There are still 35,000 people without power tonight just in Raleigh. Many areas are underwater and more are to come. My wife has family in Rocky Mount which is just east of I95 in the north eastern part of the state. Earlier this morning, hopefully this has changed at this point, the only way into the city was by air! The roads had flooded. Her father lives 25 miles to the west of Rocky Mount and all of the roads leading out of his area where also flooded. Some are back roads but US 64 is a major 4 lane highway! I95 is/was flooded at two widely seperated locations. Thankfully my kin, as we say down here, are all on high ground. Dennis just did his little dance on the Carolina coast the week before. I guess he liked it so much he did not want to leave. Well, I guess the old saying, "Its finer in Carolina!," and he just wanted to stay. One of the local lakes I paddle was at a very low level. You could see the lake bed in many places. After a little bit of rain, 6 inches or so 8-), from Dennis, Jordan lake rose 7, yes seven, feet! It will be interesting to see how high the lakes get..... Listening to the wind roar through your trees, wondering if they are going to fall or not is very, very, very humbling. Not a damn thing you can do about it. Just hope they dont fall and get you. And the wind does not appear to have gotten about 52mph locally. One has to be nuts to stay on the coast and be exposed to 100+ mph winds much less the water. People behaved very differently with Floyd than Fran. When Fran came to town three years ago I was one of the few people that left work early to prepare. After Fran devestated the area people really took Floyd seriously. The evacuation from the coast caused I40 to be a parking lot from Wilmington to west of Greensboro. That is a couple hundred miles of road! Local stores were selling out of ice, bottled water, chain saws, generators, etc., a day or so before Floyd came to town. My wife saw people almost get into fights over D cell batteries at Wally World. People learned from Fran. Hopefully this is not too big of a conceptual jump but what people learned from Fran and applied to Floyd is the same process that people go through as we gain more knowlege of paddle sports. An earlier poster talked about introducing a person to kayaking and realizing how dangerous his earlier trips had been. I know I look back on one or two trips and realize I might have been in a little over my head but I learned. I think! 8-) Momma Nature is much more bigger than us little people.... Later... Dan McCarty *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
|what's up in wilmington? we've got friends & family there. bertha hit them |2 years ago, and it was a mess... your last report said they were cut off. |we haven't gotten through, or much word of anything... |thanks, |mark >From news reports there are no open land routes to Wilmington. I40 is close from Newton, NC into Wilmington. Most people evacuated from down east so they are likely out of the city and can't get back. The state is telling people that everything EAST of I95 is CLOSED. All primary and secondary roads are closed. A DOT website, http://www.dot.state.nc.us/news/floyd04a3.html#28, has the road closing's for the state. Most of the fatalities are from people traveling on flooded roads. I have not heard of any deaths from the storm itself. The news reports say that power and phone service is out down east so even if friends and family stayed they likely can't talk. As long as they don't travel they are safe. I40 was a parking lot from Wilmington to Greensboro Weds. Lots of people evacuated. The floods are going to be worse than expected. My wife's family is from Rocky Mount, NC. They have a farm that is between Rocky Mount and Tarborro. The Tar river is on one side of the farm. The first number is the FLOOD stage, second number is the current level.... Rocky Mount 15.0 32.2 Cresting Fri. at 34.0-35.0 Tarboro 19.0 32.1 Cresting Sat. at 34.0 This is big water! 8-( Flooded Roads. Folks, don't try to travel across a road that is flooded. A car only has a couple of square feet of rubber meeting the road. Once the water hits the body and/or the car floats, bye bye car. Most of the deaths from Floyd have been because of this. There are so many copters flying over Rocky Mount the Coast Guard is flying a helecopter that is just for air traffic control. The Sheriff has called on people with boats to help rescue people from the flooding. The DOT site has one listing for the roads in the Rocky Mount. All closed and flooded. I got a call from my wife's cousin this morning. Her grandmother just got pulled from the water by a copter. Grandma decided to go for a drive. She was driving down a road following other people. Course the road was flooded. As she inched her way through a semi went roaring through generating a huge wave. The wave floated her car off the road and down stream. Grandma, who is in her 70's, can't swim. She somehow got out of the car and grabbed a tree. 90 minutes later a copter pulled her out of the water. A local officer recognized grandma, her purse/id is somewhere down stream in the car, and took her to my mother in laws. Grandma is very lucky to be alive. Very. Its been in the high 70s and I'm sure the water is in the 60s. We know what this combination can do..... I hope someone got the plate of the semi. There are criminal charges waiting for him. He did not stop. Now one can either laugh or cry at life take your pick. But the image of grandma flying through the air under a helecopter....... Now for the good part. Why was grandma traveling? Did she need food? Did she need water? No, she had a hair appointment! Gotta laugh! BigWater and cars don't mix..... Dan McCarty *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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