Also, a lot of the water just flows away; if the soils dries out too much it becomes less absorbent and a suddenly large rainfall will mostly just run off instead of soaking in. So the soil isn’t as hydrated as you’d want, and the chance of flooding increases.
Ahh, memories of Hurricane Wilma again. The whole cul-de-sac was hanging out in the front yards, where several of us had pulled out grills around. My neighbor had steak and lobster tails in the freezer. Others contributed chicken and other standard stuff, based on appetites and what was defrosting. We ate really well.
For us it was Hurricane Fran, but yeah, it was a “hurricane party.” We still ended up tossing a lot of food; my parents had a giant standalone freezer, and that thing was always full.
An excellent article in the Washington Post (gift link below), on why people heeding the warnings, as well as a bit of luck in the final track of the storm, led to Milton not being as bad as it could have been.
Brother now has power:
Our first flicker was at 3:00 AM but it only lasted a couple of seconds. At 5:00 AM if was fully back.
BTW, our rain total was just over 6 inches.
Brian
So, post hurricane venting time:
Virtually no gas stations are operational. I am currently in a line at the one station in the area that has gas, but the tanks apparently got so low that air ended up in the lines, and everything had to be shut down. So, I’m sitting in a very long line that is not moving, since we are waiting for some maintenance people to fix the problem.
Of course, being that my tank is practically empty, I have no choice to just sit here and wait. It’s expected to take hours before we start moving again.
At least the weather’s nice.
The good news is the gas station situation should get better fairly quickly. I understand that the port of Tampa is operational, and gas should be flowing through regular channels. So as long as they have power to run the pumps, they should be able to keep up with demand after the initial surge.
I know that doesn’t really help for the immediate need, though.
Still no water in here in Black Mountain or in most of the Asheville area. Much of Buncombe County has power though. Everyone looks unwashed and tired because we are.
The official number of dead in Buncombe County keeps fluctuating between around 40 to upwards of 75, but many are still missing. If people were washed away or buried in mud they may never be found.
I saw our neighborhood bear wander through yesterday. We are glad to know “Bailey” survived.
Everything we eat is from the microwave except salad and fresh fruit. Water is precious and cannot be wasted on cooking. Only so many granola bars and pop tarts one can consume and still enjoy. Most folks are still being nice and cooperative despite all this. That is heartening.
I have checked on the family home in Montreat twice and it is OK, though the destruction around the property is everywhere. The creek rushing across what used to be our street is still an ugly brown instead of its gurgling picturesque self. Still no power at the house there and I suspect it will be a long time coming. The power lines behind our Montreat house are still lying on the ground. At some point this week I will have to walk in to that house with trash bags to empty out the smelly refrigerator. The last family group there before the storm hit left butter, milk and a few perishables that have now perished. But at least the warm beer still in the fridge will be drinkable. I am not touching the peach beer though. That abomination has been loitering in the house since mid-summer. Can’t get anyone in the family to own up to it.
I have switched to working only afternoon and evening shifts at my grocery job because we lost a lot of PM help and that is something needed I can do. Nothing else is open in Asheville after dark, and people who used to go out to stores, restaurants, clubs or the Blue Ridge Parkway now have nothing to do at night. So they go to the grocery store. Often whole families come in just to buy a few items. I think they understandably just want to get out of the house.
Internet works. Got enough food. Gas is easily available now. Still a huge help presence including the National Guard. Lots of good skilled people from across the country are here doing what the can. Free food, water and clothes are available to those who lost their homes or are otherwise in need. People who fault the government response for political gain are among the lowest.
There’s plenty of gas, and we have power.
The finally got the pumps working about 15 minutes ago, so we are finally moving; it only took 3 and a half hours!
Of course, I can’t complain too much: some of the people in front of me have been waiting since before 5 am (6 and a half hours ago). The guy at the front of the line says he’s been there (on empty) since 1 pm yesterday.
Should have stuck it in his hat and called it “macaroni”.
Glad to hear you are hanging in there and that things are slowly improving. Long way to go yet, though for some places.
I know one reason people move up or choose to stay in isolated places in those mountains is to be away from civilization, but this is the downside of that. Even if you have arranged your life to live totally off-grid, there’s just no way to deal with an event like this on your own.
A pretty hefty fraction of gasoline stations in FL have emergency generators. Not all, but many. Even better if they’re gasoline-powered 
If I recall correctly, after Wilma, it was made a requirement that stations in Florida with more than a certain number of pumps be equipped for generators. I don’t recall if they had to actually have the generator, or just a hookup for it. And I don’t recall how it applied to existing stations.
Actually, checking the internet, the requirement seems to be stations issued a certificate of occupancy after Jul 1 2006 must be prewired with a transfer switch. So generator-capable, but not necessarily generator-equipped.
I wonder how powerful a generator has to be to usefully run the critical parts of a gas station. Not too much, I’d think, so a standard portable generator that many of us may have in our garage may be sufficient.
The need to run the computers / cash registers in the store, the computers in each pump, the networking stuff that hooks them all together, and the lift pumps that deliver fuel under pressure to each pump island. And enough lights to see what you’re doing at night.
I’m seeing several KW, maybe 10. Of course a 50-pump station needs more power than a 4-pump station.
I think this is a good thread for this discussion of Milton, Helene, and the role of climate change.
This analysis finds that storms with Milton’s wind speeds have become approximately 40% more frequent; equivalently, winds associated with storms of similar rarity have become nearly 5 m/s more intense, due to 1.3 °C of global warming (figure 2). In practice, this means that without climate change Hurricane Milton would have been a Category 2 rather than a Category 3 hurricane when it made landfall.
I’ve been seeing the usual stories and video clips where snakes, gators, and stingrays are in some of the flood waters, themselves having been displaced by the storm.
Well, this isn’t surprising. 
See also
These folks are a good read every day, not just this one article.
Most blokes will be at 5 and where do you go from there? Nowhere! What we do, is we go to 6.
As mentioned above many times by many people, it’s waaaaay past time to retire windspeed as the measure of demerit for hurricanes.
Physical area times peak windspeed multiplied by storm surge height plus a factor for how populated the area it hits or whether it’ll die in the hilly Appalachians making floods (e.g. Helene) or out at sea (e.g. Milton).
IOW, simply replace the Saffir Simpson scale with the Insurance Industry Institute’s best guess on the total dollar loss, both insured and uninsured. That’ll be a number Americans can relate to. And those folks have some great modeling skills. They know what this’ll cost.
So Milton is estimated as a $10B hurricane and Helene is estimated as a $20B hurricane. Easy to understand as it’s bearing down on you.