PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic Hurricanes Helene and Milton

We all are aware that Hurricane Helene absolutely devastated portions of the Appalachian Mountain area of NC, SC, and Tenn. To at least mention music Asheville, NC is/was the center of music, arts and crafts in the area. Warren Haynes (Allman Brothers Band & Gov’t Mule) is from there and is a long financial supporter of charities in the area. Two weeks after the 350 mile inland Helene hit there are many casualties, missing people and those with no hope of power for weeks or even months to come. The entire town is not recognizable to us. Some roads including interstate sections will not be open until next spring. Janice and I each have a sister in the are who are going through some tough times but thankfully are well. Our town had minimal damage only because of a shift in the course during the night before the storm passed through.

Now comes Hurricane Milton with a forecast of catastrophic damage to a large area of the Florida Gulf coast. We also have family in the area and there are PG Music forum members in some of the potentially worst areas.

We cannot imagine what they are going through just preparing for this. Please join us in hoping for the absolute best outcome for all of these folks.

On a good note Dolly Parton donated $1,000,000 personally and another $1,000,000 from her foundation for recovery efforts. Who knows maybe some billionaires can join her.

J&B

Yes, I have family in the area as well. Hoping for a good outcome for all...

Bob

I am at my house in Sebring. The storm is around 500 miles away and perhaps will pass very close to my house. It is to early to know the exact track and the wind speed. I have very little risk of flooding but the green house and the zillion flowers my wife has are at risk. We survived Ian without issue but did not have the green house at that time.

Our ranch is also in the path as it stands now and the workers have evacutated. We did not lose any cows with Ian and I expect the same with this storm. We had 135 mph wind with Ian. Lost some roof material on two buildings and over 100 big trees down, many on fences.

The storm is expected to arrive at my house here in Sebring early Thursday morning. Winds have been recorded over 200 mph and now sustained at 155mph. All the models have the wind coming down to Cat 3 at landfall. I will have a much better idea if that is true around noon tomorrow. If the storm is still up around Cat 5 I will leave and go to Miami. I have not seen video of State road 27 south but I-4 and I-75 are bumper to bumper. 27 is only a mile or so from my house and I am going to drive there this afternoon to take a look. My house will stand wind to about 125 mph without major damage.

There is much news about Tampa and the coast in general but not much about the inland areas.

We have plenty of water, a well, food for at least a month, sat phone, and two generators and fuel for one month.

It looks like Tampa will suffer greatly based on current information. I assume some people will not leave their homes there and are at great risk of losing their life.

I expect my home owners insurance to double again.

Being 100 miles inland does not keep you safe any longer from the wind.

I expect the hurricane issue to get worse every year.

Put your guitars and such in their case wraped in plastic just in case.

Best wishes for everyone affected by both of these storms. Try to help take care of the people around you.

Cheers,

Billy

Di and I wish the very best possible outcome for the folks in Milton's path. And we still think about those in the Carolinas and Tennesse from Helene.

We live in Decatur, AL, which typically is in the path of tornadic activity in the southeast. Fortunately, we've been spared any significant storm issues in the 10+ years we've been here.

Again, best thoughts and prayers to all who have already suffered and those who are in the way of potential tragedy. Floyd Jane immediately comes to mind. But our thought are with all of you.

Take care and be safe, everyone.

Alan

Good luck and best wishes to all impacted by these unprecedented and dangerous weather events.
According to the authorities, Milton is poised to take the lives of those without proper shelter and high ground.

I am praying that all of my BiaB friends will be safe. You can replace material things but not people.

As many of you know, I am on a Search & Rescue team here in Eastern NC. I'm a K9 handler with two certified HRD (cadaver) dogs. Our team has around 12 certified HRD dogs and around 8 or so certified live find dogs. Our team has not yet been activated by NC Emergency Management. We've been told that we're on standby. NCEM knows what assets we have and will call us when we are needed.

This disaster has totally devastated many of the small mountain communities and unfortunately, there are still hundreds of people who are missing. This ongoing tragedy is likely to continue for many months and some of the towns will not be restored for years. The death count is sure to continue to climb based simply on the number of people still unaccounted for.

They are still clearing and making repairs to the roads to get access to the small communities that are cut off. Many of those are still only accessible by air. They're using the available helicopters to get the injured out and supplies like gasoline, generators, food, water and medicine, in to the survivors. Many of the first teams on site were local NC, VA, SC, TN volunteer SAR teams & FEMA task force teams, not to be confused with the FEMA agency that showed up 7 days later. With the damage, and lack of accessibility, these teams were working long hours in extremely hard conditions to clear the main areas closer to the big highways and towns. Many of those teams are now pulling out due to fatigue and burn-out. They were told to go home, rest and get ready to deploy to Florida for the aftermath of Milton. Especially the FEMA task force teams which are regional teams. One of our local Raleigh teams was up there 10 days working 16 hr days. They came home exhausted two days ago.

We're expecting to be activated by NCEM in the future, to take our dogs and go into the back woods communities to search, as they are still working on getting those roads cleared, and temporary repairs to make the roads passable by vehicle. This will certainly help make our job a bit easier. Military personnel (1000+) were called in from all of the bases in NC as well as the helicopters from the bases that had them. Since the priority was getting the people supplied, and helicopter was the only way in to the back country, the choppers were not being used to ferry search dogs in and out. The deceased are not going anywhere and they will be there until we can get in with the K9s. The important thing is keeping the survivors alive.

Continue to pray or send good vibrations to this effort. The people in the disaster need it and so do the volunteers who are there to help.

I'll be about 70 miles south of the center of Milton on the Atlantic coast.

If Milton doesn't change it's mind, I should be in barely hurricane force winds. I've been through enough hurricanes to know, nobody knows when or if it will shift. If it does, it'll probably shift to the right of its path, and that would put it closer to us.

If it doesn't shift, they are predicting no more than 80mph winds here. This house has seen that before, the awnings are down, the storm panels up, and we are prepared. As long as a tree doesn't fall and hit the house, I'm not expecting a problem.

But then I know that in a hurricane, sometimes the unexpected happens. We're keepng our proverbial fingers crossed.

Good luck to all in its path.


Notes ♫

[quote=Guitarhacker

Continue to pray or send good vibrations to this effort. The people in the disaster need it and so do the volunteers who are there to help. [/quote]
Thank you, and your team for your heroic efforts... Prayers up for all those souls in harm's way.

We are OK here in Sebring. Minor damage to our place. Others not so lucky.
There is a lot of damage at the ranch but no cattle died. All our people are OK.
It could have been a lot worse.
We had over 90 tornado warnings. That is the second largest number of tornado warnings ever recorded in the United States anywhere. Some people have died due to the tornados.

Hurricanes are just a fact of life here.

There was one remarkable thing I listened to. One guy floated around on a ice box overnight 30 miles offshore in 20 foot seas and the coast guard picked him up this morning...wow

I try my best not to go offshore in my boat in a hurricane...lol

Best luck to everyone

Billy

Billy, the events and tragedies certainly made the front-page press here, including the man on the ice box and the rescue.
The headline is: "Man clinging to Esky rescued 50km out to sea; alligator emerges from floodwaters, bites car"
I hope that all of our team from that area is safe there, and can continue to do the 'music thing'.

We got lucky.

We lost some tree branches and palm fronds, which are only a PITA to clean up. We lost landline and Internet service for 3+ days. Our cell phone was so slow it was almost useless. And we lost our weekend gigs. Although most of the people in the county lost electricity, we never did.

A tornado ripped through 3 counties, ours in the middle, causing devastation and death to some. Usually we get little EF1 or less twisters, but these were real EF3 and 4 tornadoes.

As of late Saturday (yesterday) the landline/Internet came back, and our mobile started acting better.

We are back to normal for us and our neighbors. We'll go about helping others now.

Glad you came out on the better side of those tornadoes. So many folks were devastated. Nice to hear you are helping others and that your communications are back. Seems like I vaguely remember landlines. 😀

Bud

Glad to hear this Notes.
Soon you'll be able to get back to those nudist colony gigs.
But watch out for those pesky mosquitoes

The landline piggybacks on the cable Internet (I don't have TV). The mobile coverage here is spotty. Sometimes 1 flickering bar on the house, but if I get on the roof, I get 4. I've tried all 3 major carriers and there is no difference. So in good weather, the cell phone piggybacks on the landline/Internet connection.

During and after Milton, the cell phone took about a minute for any Internet page to load, some never finished. It's that flickering one-bar thing. That's why the landline.

I think the problem is I'm 32' above sea level, we call it the Florida Alps. It's sparsely populated here. To the east one house, a 2 mile wide lagoon, barrier island, and the Oean. To the west, one house and a large protected wetland. Although I only have 1/2 acre, most folks around here have 50 or so. Being sparsely populated, nobody wants to invest more than they have to in order to give us coverage. It's about return on their dollars of investment.

But it's a little piece of paradise, and it's worth it to us.

In 2024 we had 2 hurricanes and a tropical storm. All cell phones were out, but the landline still worked, so all my neighbors used my phone to let their dear ones know they were OK.

Milton's tornadoes were unusual, and hopefully something that will not repeat. Usually during a 'cane, they are little twisters that don't do more than rip tiles of the roof, but Miltons were like Dorothy and Toto tornadoes.

I'll be going out to help those not so lucky this afternoon again. It's just the right thing to do.


Notes ♫

In 2002, my first wife and I purchased 11 acres and built a log cabin on a mountain near Bat Cave, NC. The entire area was devastated by Hurricane Helene.

Fortunately, my ex-wife was smart enough not to stay on the mountain during the storm and was in her home near Myrtle Beach. She has only recently been able to get into the area and check on the cabin. It has minor damage and the main remaining concerns are removing a very large tree half blown over and dangling precariously over the cabin. There's still no electricity, running water or repairs to the one road into and out of the community.

I heard a news story after the storm of a victim near Bat Cave that remained in Bat Cave during the storm and her home was swept away with her in it. She was recovering from recent back surgery and was immobilized and was unable to evacuate before the storm and her home was swept off the foundation by the flood waters.

Thursday at a volleyball game of my granddaughter's, my ex-wife was there too and she updated me about the cabin condition and the area condition. I asked had she heard the news story about this lady and turns out she's a neighbor. Another neighbor in the community is who found her two days after the storm. She had been ejected from her home and remained trapped in the mud for three days total, including the long hours it took to get equipment and rescue personnel to safely extract her from the mud and debris. Thankfully, she survived her ordeal.

[quote=Charlie Fogle
Thankfully, she survived her ordeal. [/quote]
I'm sure there are those that take the National Weather Service for granted but the warnings and alerts they issue save lives and prevent injury. And their forecasting technology is getting better all the time. 50 years ago it was one big guessing game.

Glad to hear your good news story.

Wow - that's amazing.

I'm glad you and your wife are OK.

The hurricanes do seem to be getting worse. We had some casualties around here, nobody we know, but in communites we gig at. We never had EF3 tornadoes in a hurricane before. EF0 or barely EF1 at the most.

This year, the hurricane season is winding down, although we have had them as late as December, but the odds are low. It's time to lick our wounds and rebuild. We did OK, so we've been volunteering to help others.

The destruction from these storms is truly heartbreaking. It’s hard to imagine what so many families are going through, especially those who have lost their homes or livelihoods. Beyond property damage, these disasters often lead to legal issues—insurance disputes, unsafe living conditions, or even employer negligence during recovery efforts. For anyone navigating these challenges, this resource might help: https://www.leonardhill.com/ . Stay safe, everyone.