BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES...

Wed. AM 19/25/24 from end of Staymon.
(Click to enlarge)

Unless you're living under a rock, you know Hurricane Helene is soon to wreak havoc in our area with prodigious rainfall and gusty winds starting Thursday but mostly on Friday.

The heavy rains we've seen today, Wednesday, is not related to Helene; rather, there is a tight jetstream trough dipping in the Southeast, with a low pressure cell that developed in the bottom of the trough and has been drawing up Gulf moisture, sending a wide swath of heavy rains along the stalling frontal boundary.  Just mincing weather words, really...lol!

The effect is the rains today and tonight and early tomorrow are simply going to soak the soil levels to the degree that when the wind fields get here Friday, weak trees will begin to topple, and I'm expecting to lose power at some point, especially on Friday.

Having worked in TV for 24 years, I cringe when I see the typical weather related stories of have this, have that, get this, get that...but it does bear repeating that I'm staging flashlights and candles, and charging batteries in anticipation of an outage.  Whereas most of our outages might be limited to just Apple Creek/Mauney Cove Rd area, this storm could cause a much wider spread of outages, which means it may take longer for power to come back on.  Just sayin'...

In fact, I'm loading the chainsaw and supplies in my car so I can ensure I get home from work the next couple of days, just in case I come across a tree down across the road.  Being overprepared beats being underprepared.

Weather will improve quickly this weekend, so this is not a very long event, but we still have to navigate the next 60 hours or so.

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As an aside, our annual HOA meeting last Saturday went smoothly and was lightly attended, but I got to meet a few new folks in the process.  Looking ahead, October 7-ish may be when our annual paving efforts will take place, at the mercy of weather-related scheduling by the paving company.  I'll be posting the actual date as best I can when it is set, which is usually very close to the actual event.  Stay tuned!

Bob