# 2024 Hurricane Season **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 19, 2024, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2024-hurricane-season/1003076 "2024-06-19T22:15:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2024-hurricane-season/1003076/121 "2024-09-29T03:15:34Z")
> [@Biotop](#): > > I had prescriptions ready for pick-up at a Walgreens nearby. But that pharmacy is now closed and I do not know when they will re-open. Is there another Walgreens that you can drive to? If so give them a call. The other possibility is mail deliver of prescriptions by Walgreen. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2024-hurricane-season/1003076/122 "2024-09-29T07:50:12Z")
It’s real bad, unprecedented flooding, highways closed permanently like I40 W. Was there a week ago! Just unreal the devastation to TN and NC. Hope help is on the way. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2024-hurricane-season/1003076/123 "2024-09-29T12:11:41Z")
> [@Catamount](#): > > I’m in Hendersonville NC. Oh no! We have family and family property just outside Flatrock and visit there regularly. Ironically, that was one of the places we considered fleeing to! So many good memories. My heart bleeds for that area! The cute little “downtown” area in Chimney Rock appears to have been completely wiped off the map. Once we make it back up that way, I’ll let you know. Maybe we can have lunch or something. ---
**Author:** ![mozchron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mozchron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mozchron)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2024-hurricane-season/1003076/124 "2024-09-29T12:21:50Z")
> [@Catamount](#): > > Even the Waffle Houses are closed. Holy shit 👀 I spent a year living in NC. Beautiful state. My heart bleeds for the folk living there. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2024-hurricane-season/1003076/125 "2024-09-29T12:37:16Z")
Asheville is pretty dire right now, but I and my family are safe. We are stopped outside of a waffle house, on our way to the triangle, where I am desperately looking forward to a hot shower. Will update more later! ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2024-hurricane-season/1003076/126 "2024-09-29T13:04:08Z")
I’d pay $100.00 for a hot shower right now. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2024-hurricane-season/1003076/127 "2024-09-29T13:07:52Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > Is there another Walgreens that you can drive to? If so give them a call. The other possibility is mail deliver of prescriptions by Walgreen. Nothing is open anywhere for what I can tell in Western North Carolina. I think return of mail service is likely a week or two or more in the future. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2024-hurricane-season/1003076/128 "2024-09-29T13:10:43Z")
Hey, not even kidding, I have relatives in the triangle who have said they’re willing to put people up. If you can afford to be gone, and want to take 26 E., send me a message! Edit: I just read back through the thread and saw the part about you being an essential worker. The offer stands, even though it sounds like you’re staying in the area for now–and thank you and other essential workers for doing so. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2024-hurricane-season/1003076/129 "2024-09-29T13:27:49Z")
Very kind offer LHoD. But I am staying put. My house is OK and I can get to work. They need me. The store I work at is in a tiny island of Asheville where power was somehow restored early Saturday. I don’t know how to clear streets. If I used a chainsaw I’d probably cut of my arm instead of a downed tree. I don’t know how to get the water on. The power grid destruction is beyond my weak mind’s ability. In pretty much every way I am a useless old man to my community in crisis. But I do know how to work in a grocery store. So that’s what I can do to help. I have had so many people thank us for being here. I think we are the only open grocery in the entire downtown Asheville. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2024-hurricane-season/1003076/130 "2024-09-29T13:44:04Z")
Power still out for the majority here. At the few gas stations that have power to the pumps there are lines miles long that take hours to get through. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2024-hurricane-season/1003076/131 "2024-09-29T16:42:28Z")
> [@Biotop](#): > > I have had so many people thank us for being here. I think we are the only open grocery in the entire downtown Asheville. It looks like they’re all in one cluster, a living example of Hoteller’s Law by which like businesses tend to congregate together. It makes sense for the businesses since they’re close to the interstate and downtown yet not in the expensive built-up downtown area, even though it means the average person is farther away from a grocery store. But not only would it seem to make the area more reliant on that particular place not being flooded, it also meant that I couldn’t find one the only time that I’ve been to Asheville. Oddly enough I was there because I was evacuating from another hurricane. Even only 1 convenience store that noticed between the Hilton Garden Inn and the Pinball Museum. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2024-hurricane-season/1003076/132 "2024-09-29T19:48:47Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > > [@Loach](#): > > > > The in-laws were going to be driving back to Florida today. They decided to stay an extra day. By the time they leisurely make it back everything should be fine. > > I take it they live where the hurricane didn’t do much? Because I’m seeing on TV incredible devastation in the Big Bend and adjacent areas, destruction that’s not going to be set straight in a couple of days. They live in Kissimmee. As long as I95 is fine they will be able to get back without trouble. I was amazed at how bad the devastation is so far from landfall then I remembered helping my pregnant wife out a second floor window to a boat after Floyd. That hit North Carolina but was devastating to New Jersey. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2024-hurricane-season/1003076/133 "2024-09-29T22:24:29Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Tropical storms and hurricanes in the North Atlantic and Eastern Pacific (i.e., those which may affect the U.S.) are named by the U.S. National Hurricane Center, in collaboration with the World Meteorological Organization. The NHC has six sets of annual lists (one set for the Atlantic, and one set for the Pacific), which they rotate through; each list has 21 names (skipping the letters Q, U, X, Y, and Z), and alternates between male and female names. The Official Word: **[Tropical Cyclone Names (noaa.gov)](https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames.shtml)**. > [@Zakalwe](#): > > > [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > > > Surprisingly sane traffic behavior with no traffic lights > > Good for you. Drove around Tallahassee this morning putting eyes on friend’s houses (the ones who left town). Disappointingly few people were treating power out lights as 4-way stops (required by Florida law). I will admit to being an asshole after almost getting smacked. Got ahead of her and at the next light blocked both lanes to come to a full stop, then let EVERYBODY else go before I went. Fuck her. My area had an outage a few storms / years ago. Not widespread, but patchy. So one square mile of dark, 4 of normality, 4 sq mi of dark, 20 of normality, etc. Lather rinse repeat at random all across the Miami metroblob. One sunny afternoon a couple days after the storm I drove a familiar boulevard to a familiar store. Traffic wasn’t zero, but close to it; cars were 1/8 mile apart or so. Along the way I merrily blew through a dead traffic light at 45mph. Recognized what I was doing just as I was crossing the crosswalk into the intersection at full speed. Fortunately the cross street was a neighborhood entrance so little traffic on average and at that very moment none at all. Thank goodness. That was 100% on me. Did I know academically that there’s a traffic light at the corner of ABC Boulevard and Happy Acres drive? Sure I did. Did I notice at the time that it was up there but unilluminated? Nope. The lack of a red or green illuminated light overhead just turned those black rectangles up there into more urban/suburban clutter. I literally did not recognize the equipment hanging over the intersection _as_ a traffic light. Until I was about to pass under it. To be sure, my mistake was facilitated by the 12 (or was it 15?) fully-operative lights I’d driven through on the way there. And the lack of widespread wreckage to cue the fact I was driving in very unusual circumstances. Unlike what was going on that day in your / that lady’s area. But believe me, I learned something that day: It’s a LOT harder to recognize the absence of a traffic light than you might expect. Reasonable drivers will make innocent errors. And yes, careless or me-first-screw-y’all drivers will do really ignorant shit too. I’ll venture a guess that the longer the lights remain out after a storm, the greater the error (or don’t give a shit) rate will be. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2024-hurricane-season/1003076/134 "2024-09-29T22:38:30Z")
Been looking at the reports from NC/TN. Having lived through catastrophic damage beyond expectations and preparations, including not knowing of the fate of people, brings back such heartbreak. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2024, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2024-hurricane-season/1003076/135 "2024-09-30T01:05:02Z")
What hurricane or other disaster was that? ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2024, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2024-hurricane-season/1003076/136 "2024-09-30T01:06:18Z")
Maria, Puerto Rico 2017. Did some writing on it here back then. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2024, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2024-hurricane-season/1003076/137 "2024-09-30T03:02:52Z")
So far 105 dead–and with a huge number of missing the number will go a lot higher: > **[Helene death toll climbs past 100 as Southeast digs out from storm's devastation](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hurricane-helene-path-florida/)** > > Helene has left at least 105 people dead, CBS News has confirmed, and caused widespread destruction and knocked out power to several million people. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2024, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2024-hurricane-season/1003076/138 "2024-09-30T11:57:01Z")
Tomorrow I am going to take a day off from work and attempt to walk the 10- mile round trip through Black Mountain and into Montreat to see how (if) our old family home there fared. Montreat is a beautiful little town tucked away in a steep cove with a babbling creek running through the town center. The Town has one store, a small lake with a dam that was breached but held, a church, a post office, a park, an inn, a small Presbyterian college, several B&Bs and a bunch of tiny paved roads up into the mountains leading to homes old and new. Many are summer homes but there are several hundred year-round residents. You can hike to Mount Mitchell and back among the many trails leading to stunning rock outcrops. Before this week the main discussion in Montreat has been what to do about all the bear activity and whether the inn should be allowed to expand. To me Montreat is the most wonderful place on earth. I go for multiple walks there every week since we moved nearby less than two years ago. Indeed my wife and I relocated here from Virginia to be near Montreat. I remember my mother once talking about a flood in the 1940’s where the water almost reached Greybeard Trail, the road in front of our Montreat home. I understand that road is now mostly gone. I left a twelve pack of beer in the fridge there at the house last week, so if I make it to Shadynook there may be a reward waiting. Though now in my sixties, that little house has been a refuge from life’s problems for me since childhood. Built in 1910, Shadynook was first owned by my grandparents and then by my mother and her sister. My wife and I share it with 35 relatives now. It is where our family gets together. It is where we have gathered for weddings ( two inside the house itself) and funerals. The home has no heat, so we close it up in November and then have a family gathering to reopen it Easter weekend the following year. Near the entrance to the town is a Memorial garden where one of my cousin’s ashes (the first family death of my generation) were placed a year and a half ago. The garden is nearby mis-named Flat Creek and I suspect it (the garden) is gone. Still no water here in Black Mountain and probably not any for weeks. No bathrooms, no laundry, no showers. I feel like everyone has done a good job working together but I what is going to happen to our communities if it takes weeks to restore water and power? Can we maintain that “all in this together” support? Especially in the current political climate? ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2024, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2024-hurricane-season/1003076/139 "2024-09-30T15:37:23Z")
So I don’t want to be a Debbie downer, but there could be another storm that forms this week which might follow the same general path. > **[Atlantic remains hotbed of activity as Gulf Coast faces threat of another...](https://www.foxweather.com/weather-news/atlantic-disturbances-gulf-coast-threat.amp)** > > As the Southeast continues to grapple with Hurricane Helene's aftermath, the Gulf Coast is now facing the threat of another tropical system. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2024, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2024-hurricane-season/1003076/140 "2024-09-30T15:52:35Z")
A somewhat less … excitable … take on the situation: > **[Tropical Déjà Vu? Another Week, Another Area to Watch in the Gulf](https://michaelrlowry.substack.com/p/tropical-deja-vu-another-week-another)** > > Although another system could form in the same area as Helene, models for now suggest it remains weak and messy [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2024-hurricane-season/1003076.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2024-hurricane-season/1003076.md?page=8)