Hurricane Helene

[1-tonmudder]

Greene County, TN 's drinking water intake and pump system on the Nolichucky is a total loss.

They told us about that Fri evening,Said there is enuf reserve water last 36/48 hours.We still have water but most dont. A friend of mine is over one of the water districts and he it will be at least a week,best case scenario.

 

[1-tonmudder]

https://fb.watch/uVRdUNhWo-/

 

[RatLabGuy]

They told us about that Fri evening,Said there is enuf reserve water last 36/48 hours.We still have water but most dont. A friend of mine is over one of the water districts and he it will be at least a week,best case scenario.

Its hard for me to believe that kind of infrastructure can be up and going in a week, especially given the areas conditions. That's gotta be a some very hard working fellows that deserve serious respect.

 

[rodney eppes]

Mount Holly has been mostly shut down since Thursday evening, due to downed trees, power lines, & lack of traffic signals. And of course one main road Hwy 273, @ Hwy 27, flooded, from Dutchman's Creek, that gets Reverse flow from the Catawba River. Pretty much every thing reopened by this morning [Sunday]. Some mud still at that intersection. And anyone in the Low areas & Riverfront, have been evacuated, or on Flood advisement due to All the Dams, releasing Historic amounts of water! Leveling off now, as they send it to SC. [Sorry Ron]
My story is so Little, but seems interesting. Friday at 5:30am., my power goes out. Took a while for me to see the reason. Naturally, it's My Pine tree, laid over on the power lines! Crap! Got Duke notified as soon as I could. Saw a bucket truck go by around 8:30am, but he kept going. My tree wasn't the only one. A couple hours later, the line got energized, but my transformer breakers kicked out again. I thought, well they will come back to me looking for the next problem. Yep, same truck came back within the hour. They said as they rode down my street, they were looking at the lines & never saw the tree. Then they explained they were the Energy guys, & had to wait on the Tree guys. That took another 4-5 hours, but I understand. Finally the tree truck showed up. Then they had to close my block of the street, call for more help, & get to it! Guy started by delimbing the Pine & cutting off what he could above the lines. Tree was tangled in the lines & they needed a plan so as Not to break any lines. Almost too much help arrived, four more trucks, & 4 pickups! A lot of Bosses, & Go-fers! This dude that acted like Tarzan, grabbed a block & tackle, run his bucket up through my giant Sycamore, trying the block & tackle off high! Ran a rope back to near center of the pine trunk, & tied that off to a hitch on a pickup. Actually had another line on it, that I couldn't see, until they were near done. Took some weight off the trunk & secured it with about 8 guys! Then Saw man got to it again, cutting small sections of trunk, until it was clear, & then the guys lowered it to the ground. I got one Great picture, just as the saw guy cut one long section, I snapped the picture! They cleared the street & rail road tracks, left all the pine for Me, & left. About 30 minutes later [6:30?] my power came back on! YEAH. 13 hours, I'm Not complaining!

 

[rodney eppes]

Its hard for me to believe that kind of infrastructure can be up and going in a week, especially given the areas conditions. That's gotta be a some very hard working fellows that deserve serious respect.

I would think what they are doing is a temporary solution, temporary pumps, until the plant & reservoir can be built! Man, that's a Lot to dwell on, the Water Plant for the whole County! Hopefully, they can hook on some temporary lines from another County !

 

[maulcruiser]

Hey guys, just checking in on everyone. I have been on deployment with NC Task Force 11 out of Wilmington. My assignment is the NCNG base in Salisbury where we're loading Chinooks with food and water. Our Swift Water team is in the Asheville area doing whatever they can. More calls come in as cell service is being restored. Y'all stick together, help your neighbors, be as patient as possible, and stay safe. I'll touch back when I can.

 

[JSJJ388]

Hey guys, just checking in on everyone. I have been on deployment with NC Task Force 11 out of Wilmington. My assignment is the NCNG base in Salisbury where we're loading Chinooks with food and water. Our Swift Water team is in the Asheville area doing whatever they can. More calls come in as cell service is being restored. Y'all stick together, help your neighbors, be as patient as possible, and stay safe. I'll touch back when I can.

a lot of those birds are flying right over me!

 

[Loganwayne]

Burnsville is in a bad, bad way. As are other secluded mountain towns.
We ventured out today to get more fuel. Lines are 2-3 hours long. I went to the shop, drained the Ranger and siphoned from a work truck.
Shits bad around here. We lost another way out today. Only one route from home now.
We will be ok, we're tough AF. Gonna loose the generator soon (big propane tank and can't schedule a refill) but we have enough MREs, canned food and such tomlast weeks.

if you need a place to stay if you loose generator come to my house we have power and water. and i have a camper yall are welcome to stay in.

 

[OnlyOneDR]

Its hard for me to believe that kind of infrastructure can be up and going in a week, especially given the areas conditions. That's gotta be a some very hard working fellows that deserve serious respect.

Diesel temporary pumps, massive "formable" polyethylene pipe and fittings, and the use of temporary flanges on the intake side to connect into the system. They did this in Salisbury for SRU's water intake on the Yadkin many years ago (gosh, probably 2009ish) when they lost some cable terminations and other equipment in an overvoltage event. The diesel pumps kept the reservoirs at the water treatment plant at a manageable level while I worked to fix the equipment in the pump station which took me two days. I do not think their reservoirs ever went dry so the residents did not know what happened; I think between the call we received and the time we had the system running again was 3-1/2 days because it took a day to source parts do effect the repairs.

For this one hopefully the intakes are okay and they can do the same thing. Tap into the intake line, temp up some pipes, crank the diesel pumps, and get water flowing up to the treatment plant. I think the difference here is that the actual pump station is a mess so they need to clean it out before they can tap in. If there was damage to the intake screens then it might be more complicated and take longer.

 

[Monkeynono]

Still holding on in Weaverville. I saw in this thread something about the road north (26) to Tennessee being open? Any hard proof as that is a good way out for us.

 

[Hokie_YJ]

Still holding on in Weaverville. I saw in this thread something about the road north (26) to Tennessee being open? Any hard proof as that is a good way out for us.

I-26 is closed I believe from Burnsville to Erwin. The bridge across the Nolichucky in Erwin is washed out. I’ve heard the old road across the mountain is open, but can’t confirm that.

 

[Loganwayne]

Still holding on in Weaverville. I saw in this thread something about the road north (26) to Tennessee being open? Any hard proof as that is a good way out for us.

saw photos from erwin this morning its not good.

Im trying to see if the Nantahala gorge is open thats about the only way i know to get into tennessee now without a long way around.

 

[getstucksome]

I saw a white dually with a bed FULL of cases of water pulling a trailer with a skid steer getting on the on ramp for I-40 West at Sandy Ridge Rd about 6pm tonight.

that may have been RSM @Hurley heading west

 

[Hokie_YJ]

Still holding on in Weaverville. I saw in this thread something about the road north (26) to Tennessee being open? Any hard proof as that is a good way out for us.

saw photos from erwin this morning its not good.

Im trying to see if the Nantahala gorge is open thats about the only way i know to get into tennessee now without a long way around.

I’m just off 26 in Johnson City, TN. If either of you need a place to go. I have a place in front of the shop that you can park a camper and we can get power and water to it.

Edited to add that this offer stands for anyone here.

 

[Wes]

The NG should treat it like building an operating base in a combat zone. Tons of generators, pumps, pallets of water/food, expedient tent structures/showers for those displaced, and the list goes on. It can be done pretty quick with the right manpower, leadership, and support. It’s done from scratch overseas all the time.

 

[OnlyOneDR]

So, is the transformer thing political somehow? Why the hell are they so hard to manufacture?

It's like this; we took about 100 years to develop the infrastructure we have in the US. During that time there were many dozens of large and small firms manufacturing electrical equipment. As the electrification efforts dwindled there was less need for so many manufacturers. Today we have four majors left and quite a few small manufacturers. Names like Federal Pioneer, Federal Pacific, Allis-Chalmers, Brown Boveri, Sylvania, Challenger, Bryant, etc are all dead. Some of it was absorbed, some of it is simply gone, like a lot of other industries that declined or died. For transformers like what we use in our distribution grid it mostly comes down to single-phase pole-mount and three-phase pad mount.

Firstly, it needs to be said that liquid transformers of any type are intensely manual in fabrication. There are some aspects of production that can be automated but most would be surprised at how much requires human hands to do. That makes it essentially impossible to do a "lights out" robot factory to churn out product. These take specialized equipment and specially-trained people to build. There just was not as much demand for a long time for these (just the standard "growth") so manufacturers right-sized production lines to provide reasonable lead times without having over-capacity that causes equipment and people to sit around. That has all changed in the last few years and now everyone is trying to expand out production, but that takes time because again you need all this specialty equipment and people to make them.

For pole mounts you have VanTran, Maddox, Hitachi Energy, Eaton, ERMCO, GE Prolec, and probably one or two others I forgot. The "electrify everything" and "de-carbonize everything" push over the last handful of years had the effect of having utilities start over-ordering to get more and larger size units on-hand. The industry had stretched to about a four-year lead time on pole mounts from the larger manufacturers.

For pad mount there are more manufacturers (add in Virginia Transformer, Weg, and Hammond Power Solutions) but these are much larger to build and handle so not as many can be produced on a line. These are also always "snowflakes" and rarely are they built the same way month to month. Constant shifting of commodity pricing on steel, copper, and aluminum means that they are design-optimized products because they are so heavy in metals. One month they may have slightly different core steel and tank layouts than the next due to shifts in costs on the materials. All that change makes it slightly slower to churn them out. And again, utilities started ordering ahead so the lead times blew up, in some cases 2-1/2 years to get product from receipt of PO.

I have said to many that this recent push for "full electrification" is asking the mature manufacturing industry (which again, is smaller than it was decades ago) to do what was done over a century in probably 10-15 years. There just isn't enough capacity in the system to provide the product and when lead times stretch out everyone starts panic buying outside the normal process which makes it even worse. Remember toilet paper from the beginning of COVID? It's like that but for electrical equipment. Things have started to trend in the opposite (good) direction as of this year but I foresee these challenges ahead for at least a decade.

 

[jcramsey]

@Noel did you end up distributing in Old Fort? Appreciate you coming up this way to help out. Class act.

 

[Noel]

@Noel did you end up distributing in Old Fort? Appreciate you coming up this way to help out. Class act.

We went south of old fort? I guess. Kinda went around some barricades and got as far in as we could. Gave out over 100 cases of water, several gas cans that were full as well. Not even a dent in the situation. But planning to come back up this weekend.

 

[1-tonmudder]

I would think what they are doing is a temporary solution, temporary pumps, until the plant & reservoir can be built! Man, that's a Lot to dwell on, the Water Plant for the whole County! Hopefully, they can hook on some temporary lines from another County !

This! And as bad as things are else where it hardly worth mentioning.

 

[1-tonmudder]

Still holding on in Weaverville. I saw in this thread something about the road north (26) to Tennessee being open? Any hard proof as that is a good way out for us.

They tell me 70 is open all the way down the mountain to Greeneville.Ive heard 26 TO Asheville is open.

 

[1-tonmudder]

saw photos from erwin this morning its not good.

Im trying to see if the Nantahala gorge is open thats about the only way i know to get into tennessee now without a long way around.

70 into greeneville is suppose to be open.Im not sure how you get there from Clyde (w/o goin thru Hot springs?) but its suppose to be open all the way to weaverville.

 

[Loganwayne]

was just out helping send all the water we have up here on the mountain to asheville. We just saw the first helicopters flying in this area. (black hawks) several small planes are flying around to. Im assuming assessing damages and where to send resources. and saw several convoys of trucks heading into haywood county.

 

[Andy J.]

Just got back from West Jefferson. It seems all the main roads are back open. Back roads are still a mess. People up on the mtn still cutoff from landslides. Downtown and the area around Walmart had power and nearly everything was open. Residential power nearby seemed to be hit or miss.

 

[Jody Treadway]

Alright, Monday update from Hendersonville and Brevard. Still shitty. Very, very little fuel. Stations have $20 limits and SHP is patrolling them.
Cash only at stores. Grocery stores have crazy lines.
Few people have cash and it's getting heated at check-out.
Gonna be ugly as people get desperate.
We went to Brevard today, next town over from us. Very minimal damages compared to Hendersonville. We're still in a bad way with utilities here. Gonna be a long few days.

 

[RatLabGuy]

Alright, Monday update from Hendersonville and Brevard. Still shitty. Very, very little fuel. Stations have $20 limits and SHP is patrolling them.
Cash only at stores. Grocery stores have crazy lines.
Few people have cash and it's getting heated at check-out.
Gonna be ugly as people get desperate.
We went to Brevard today, next town over from us. Very minimal damages compared to Hendersonville. We're still in a bad way with utilities here. Gonna be a long few days.

IIRC Hendersonville is one of those communities with a pretty bimodal / dichotomous distribution of wealth. Going to be interesting sociology happening here.