Screenshot from video of flood with apples floating in the water.
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how did you guys’ fair Jerry?
I got a a single band of rain in Southeast Virginia on Friday afternoon. 2.1 inches in 2 hours that flooded the ditches with some highway overflows. No wind.
Thanks for asking.
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Glad you miss the devastation Jerry. It is an awful mess.
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9.6" here in Macon Co with utilities mostly back on now. Most of the orchards here, including mine, are on hillsides to escape late frosts. Henderson County is the state’s largest producer by far and is like a war zone.
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I believe “SoMtHomestead” is at the foot of the Blue Ridge just east of Asheville. Hopefully he is doing okay. That area was pretty badly affected due to the runoff down the mountains facing east and south.
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Busick, North Carolina, a remote town near Mount Mitchell State Park, received 30.78 inches of rain as a result of Helene — a record for the highest rainfall in the Appalachians from a tropical weather system. It beats the 27 inches that fell over the Virginian Appalachians in 1969.
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Our road below our property flooded but fortunately was still intact once the water receded.
The remnants of the eye about to cross Franklin (Macon Co). Notice the wind gusts to the east. The soil was so loose at that point that it didn’t take much to bring trees down.
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Any commercial apple orchards near you? Never been in that part of Carolina. Went to Asheville, Hendersonville, Waynesville and Maggie Valley a lot when I worked for NC Extension Service in the early '80s.
Macon County used to have a number of commercial orchards particularly in the Cullasaja River part of the county. Tom Brown has spent some time here and found several lost varieties including Junaluska. Nickajack, Cullasaja, Bald Mountain and others all come from the county.
There are two orchards remaining in the county but they are mostly just picked by locals and no longer sell commercially.
The closest active orchards of any size are in Haywood County (Barber Orchards) and across the Georgia border in Rabun County (Bryson’s Orchard).
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Silas McDowell, naturalist and developer of a number of apple varieties, hails from the county as well. Silas McDowell, Originator of the Thermal Zone Concept | NC DNCR
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Wow, I had not seen that statistic yet. Searching now the AP is saying:
North Carolina weather officials said their top measurement total was 31.33 inches in the tiny town of Busick. Mount Mitchell also got more than 2 feet of rainfall.
Which reminded me of what I had read about Camille and the destruction in Amherst and Nelson counties Virginia in 1969. The official total may have been 27 inches but there are multiple accounts of 30+.
The only thing I’m able to find online at the moment states:
Twenty-seven feet of rain was dumped on hard-hit Nelson County over an eight-hour period. Some measured the torrential downfall at closer to 36 feet. One farmer measured 31 feet in a feed barrel in the bed of his pickup; it was empty the night before.
With that “news” source somehow confusing inches for feet, hmm…
Nonetheless, this puts the maximum rainfall amounts from both events as very similar. And very very destructive in both cases…
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In both cases, measurable rain gauges were washed away in some areas. So an accurate true amount of rain will never be known in the worst affected areas.
Camille gave rise to the Ginger Gold apple. A seedling tree that was replanted in an orchard in that area after the hurricane went through.
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thats insane esp. on mountainous terrain that funnels it into the populated valleys. ive seen vids on youtube of whole towns obliterated. how does a town come back from that? still many areas with no cell service and inaccessible from the outside. i pray for these folks. these mountain people are known for their resourcefulness and perseverance. they will all help each other until help arrives. if i knew i could make a difference id head down with my truck and a couple saws but would likely just be in the way of the folks using heavy equipment.
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So sorry to see this devestation! Scenes that we are seeing on TV and social media are just unbelieveable! Prayers for all of you folks who were affected by this monster storm.
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Prayers for Ron and Susanne Joyner at Big Horse Creek Farm. Although I’ve never been there I gather they live in a secluded area and Ron has health issues.
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I hope they’re okay too. Their property needs a 4WD to access under normal weather conditions. From what I understand their town of Lansing in Ashe County was badly flooded. Story on the conditions near the Joyners: ATVs needed to reach Ashe County's remote towns hurting after Helene's flooding
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I don’t mean to sound flippant, but it reminds me of cranberry harvest.
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We received a foot of rain of here. About an hour from Asheville at the base of the mountains. Trees down everywhere and no power still. Luckily no trees hit our house and all our fruit trees look like they made it. All the orchards I’ve seen in the area are on hilly terrain so I think they likely escaped the bulk of the damage.
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glad you and your family are ok. i feel for your neighbors. this region is prone to heavy spring flooding when the ice goes out in the spring on the St. John river and its tributaries. we’ve had historical flooding in 90’ and 09’ that wiped out hundreds of homes and businesses, my brothers included. ive seen what alot of water can do. the town of Allagash lost its only bridge in and out of town for 8 months. choppers and boats had to ferry fuel and food the whole time . they were out of power for a month before the army corps of engineers flew in a large generator to power the town. thankfully there were only about 50 residents back then on that side of the river and many came to live with with relatives on the open side until the bridge could be rebuilt. there’s a vid somewhere i saw that actually captured the moment the ice covered then ripped the bridge from its footings. was amazing to watch. reminds me of the scene of the bridge, in the movie Dantes peak, as the flood waters engulfed it. i had friends that were standing there watching it happen.
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