Hurricane Florence Statistics and Facts

As of 11 am (MDT), Tropical Storm Florence is located at 33.6° N, 79.6° W, or 40 miles west of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  Florence is currently moving to the west at 2 miles per hour, with winds at 45 miles per hour.  As she moves inland, 40 inches of rain are expected to fall within her path.
   Florence's diameter is 400 miles - she is larger than the country of Paraguay, smaller than Iraq, and about 4 times the size of the state of Ohio.
   River flooding is expected to hit at 17 feet above normal.
   About 2 million people live inside the current evacuation zones.
   About 5.5 million people live in areas that will be affected by Florence.
   Projected damage costs from Florence will probably exceed $30 billion.
   Insurance is hoped to cover $15 to $20 billion of those estimated damages.
   $10 million was recently diverted from FEMA funds to pay for ICE detention centers and deportation efforts against asylum seekers and their children by the current White House administration.
   1,000 commercial airline flights have been canceled, and quite a few more are expecting to be canceled due to the storm.
   Since 1950, four hurricanes of category 3 strength have made landfall on the Atlantic coast between Norfolk, Virginia and Savannah, Georgia.
   The deaths of five people have been confirmed due to Florence.  The storm's powerful winds were the cause of the confirmed deaths. In Wilmington, a tree was blown into a home; a woman and her infant child were killed, while the husband (and father) was transported to the hospital with injuries. The third death occurred in Pender County when a woman suffered a fatal heart attack and first responders could not reach her location due to storm debris in and on the roads.  Two deaths were confirmed in Kinston in Lenoir County, also, according to the County Emergency Services Director, Roger Dail.  A 78-year-old man was electrocuted while trying to connect extension cords outside in the storm.  A 77-year-old man's body was found by his family at 8 am on Friday; he had gone outside to check on his hunting dogs, and apparently was blown down by the wind.
  Additionally a fatality was reported at West Brunswick High School in Shallotte, North Carolina.  The school is being used as an evacuation shelter, and the cause of death and/or it's relationship to Florence is unknown.  A teenager was reported seriously injured when a tree limb fell on both him and his father in Laurinburg, NC on Friday.

    Friday night, the Carteret County Humane Society said floodwaters were entering the kennel area and its roof was collapsing.  The shelter was seeking help to evacuate 123 dogs and cats, according to shelter manager Cassandra Tupaj.  At 7:15 am (EDT) Friday, Florence made landfall at Wrightsville Beach with 90 mph winds, heavy surf, and torrential rain that triggered flooding and knocked down trees and power lines.  Tom Ballance, a New Bern resident and restaurant owner who rode out several previous hurricanes, says he desperately wishes he would've evacuated as he watched the waves crash on the Neuse River right outside his home.  "I feel like the dumbest human being who ever walked the face of the Earth, " Ballance told the Associated Press.
   Some 100 people were still awaiting rescue this morning in New Bern, but nearly 400 had already been rescued, according to a local official.  New Bern, which has a population of about 30,000, saw significant storm surge flooding after the Neuse River overflowed its banks and swept through the town.
   Officials in Harnett County issued a mandatory evacuation for areas along the Lower Little River.  Authorities went door-to-door this morning, telling residents to get out ahead of the river's expected rise, which could crest at 17 feet above flood stage.  It wasn't immediately clear how many residents this evacuation order impacted.
   In Wilmington, Interstate 40 was closed in both directions today because the road was impassable.  Police urged residents to stay away from areas under mandatory evacuations.
   Across the state, more than 800,000 homes and businesses were without power, North Carolina Emergency Management said.

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At home, on Chincoteague and Assateague Islands in Virginia and Maryland, it's 76 degrees with a 40% chance of rain.  Rip tides are occurring off the coast, and a coastal flood watch is in effect.

In Boulder, Colorado it's 84 degrees, with 18% humidity; bright and sunny with no cloud cover.  We're under a Red Flag warning for wildfire conditions.

Windy Today

The wind picked up yesterday evening - and it's still blowing like crazy today.  Boulder has seen gusts between 87 and 88 mph, while a bit further up the canyon, in Nederland, there was a wind gust of 103 mph.  Trees and branches are falling onto power lines due to the wind, and there are almost 5,000 customers - homes and businesses - scattered throughout the county and city that are without power.  One of the areas described begins about a block north of our apartment, and is in the area where Beatrice works.  She really doesn't want to go to work today, and I don't blame her one bit.
  This is the first time we've had high winds in Boulder since we moved into the apartment - and we're finding out how noisy it can be. I've lived on the ground floor since I got my own place eleven years ago , and now I'm learning how the wind whines through the window screens on the second floor (not to mention the screen door on the balcony).  There is also an exhaust door that resides between the walls of mine and Bea's bedroom - and the wind makes the exhaust door thump quite loudly.  When the exhaust door thumps, it reverberates in the bathrooms and over the stove, where the exhaust fan connects.  It's a whole interconnected series of thumps, bumps, and booms.
  I was also perplexed when I found yet another note from our landlord, Thistle Communities, stating that we had been randomly chosen to be one of two apartments to be inspected by their city, county, state, and federal housing partners.  I moved into this apartment on 2 July, and Beatrice moved in on 30 July. We have been inspected once in July, once in August, once in September, and twice in October.  Now we will be "randomly" inspected tomorrow, in November.  I called the office to ask how frequently these inspections normally occur, and how it has happened that we have been "randomly" chosen each and every month out of 88 apartments in the complex.  I was informed that the partners take turns inspecting, usually every 6 to 8 weeks, each looking at the specific things they are interested in.  I asked how the apartments were randomly chosen, and was informed that each inspector was given the name of each complex, and the numbers of the apartments in each complex.  Then the inspectors choose two apartment numbers - supposedly at random - to inspect at each place.  I asked how it happens that we have been inspected every month, and twice last month, if the numbers are "randomly" chosen.  She laughed and said that the inspectors must like the number of our apartment....   If this is done so randomly, why have we been inspected each month?    Why not throw all the apartment numbers in a bag and randomly draw two - why allow the inspectors to keep choosing our number each month?   I had to accept the CFO's explanation, but I just don't feel that we're being chosen "randomly."  (Starting to feel a bit paranoid, actually.)

Colorado Fires Report and the Irish Derby

Our fire fighters have been working hard, and all residents of the state of Colorado owe them a huge debt of gratitude and thanks.  Several fires are still burning, and, probably, we will have fires burning until winter storms extinguish them.  Flagstaff, the fire closest to Boulder, is now 90% contained.  The three fires closer to Durango  are still a little wild - the Little Sand fire has been burning since May 13, and is only 34% contained; the Lightner fire is 75% contained; and the Weber fire is 65% contained.  The Waldo Canyon fire, near Colorado Springs, is 45% contained - and has caused the most damage so far this year.  There is another wildfire, the Pine Ridge fire, which is 25% contained, but is spreading, near I-70 and Grand Junction on the western side of the state.  The following fires are 100% contained, and are not expected to cause further damage: the High Park fire near Fort Collins; the Treasure fire near Leadville; the Eby Creek fire; the Button Rock, the Hewlett Gulch, the Lower North Fork, the Springer, and the Sunrise Mine fires; the Woodland Heights fire near Estes Park; and the Ironing Board fire on Green Mountain above Boulder.
   I was excited to read that Camelot won the Irish Derby by two lengths yesterday at the Curragh.  Camelot is a son of Montjeu, which means Northern Dancer breeding; and the broodmare sire is Kingmambo, which leads back to Nureyev, Northern Dancer and *Forli.  He's another relative of the Sleepy Hollow horses.
   Nedi is outside, trying to pick on the local crow family, but it sounds as if they are picking on him, instead.  Lovey is laying on the corner of the desk, and I'm having difficulty keeping her off the keyboard...  Maggie May went out with  me last night to turn on the irrigation ditch and prime its' pump; she was waiting outside my screen door this morning, quietly anticipating her breakfast of chicken breast, livers, and hearts.  I fed her, showered, watered the plants, and came home to my kits.  They greeted me as if they hadn't seen me in weeks, instead of hours.  I love them.
   My thoughts go out to those folks on the east coast, who are suffering from the effects of the heat wave and severe storms that have produced power outages.  Having grown up in Florida and Virginia, I know of the humidity there - and how horrible it is to be without electricity in the summer.  I feel for everyone who has been affected and afflicted by these storms.
   I hope your Sunday is pleasant.