Museum in Chatham County Courthouse NC

A quick tour of the courthouse showed me a lovely little museum.  I snapped pics so I could review some of the details later...and that must be today, for here they are.

I didn't do this museum justice, but while I was reading all of this, my friend Martha was getting to know the docent who showed us around.

I'll let you see the rest of the tour pictures tomorrow!

A brush with a storm

Black Mountain didn't get a severe blast, as Hurricane Florence just seemed to die down to a drizzle, though she did give us 5-3/4 inches (officially.)  Winds never were extreme where I live...though lots of tree limbs did fall.  One friend had a limb land on her house but she wasn't hurt.

Nothing like what happened (and is still happening) with floods in the Piedmont and the coastal counties of North Carolina.

The Town Square clock shows when the rains began Sat. morning.  I stopped by the Tailgate market and about 2/3 of the vendors were there.

Turnoff to my Apartments from Old US 70.

Looking uphill in parking lot...my building is on the left behind building D which you can see.  I'm tucked in behind some old maple trees behind those white cars to the left.  The 2 story building on the right is the office downstairs and a couple of apartments upstairs.

Looking out at my front porch with all the plants removed, I can see my little car right by the sidewalk.

Monday morning there were a few minutes of sunshine, and the fog lifted enough to see a plume drying up across the valley, and even the ridge tops.

I had to go check Flat Creek at Ole Guacamole's...it's high, but still below the terrace and the little footbridge.  They had many customers today!  If there's more rain today the water may go over it, we have flash flood warnings still.

But Flat Creek did have some moments a lot higher, because the mobile home park was evacuated Saturday.

There were a lot of power outages as well.  So Sunday was full of different levels of inconvenience.

Bue Ridge Road had a crew working on the lines near the Swannanoa River bridge...you can see a bit of the water in lower right hand corner.  My apartment is up the hill behind the Citgo station.  Traffic lights are at US 70.

Someone thought to drain Lake Tomahawk (which they didn't do in the May storms).

But just the rain of one day had it filled back up again.

The clay studio had a bit water over most of the floor, which was being wet-vac-ed and broomed off.  I just left.  Put water and clay on the concrete and it's a great sliding solution for any kind of shoes!

Is the storm over yet?

It may have seemed like much ado about nothing...since a whammo didn't happen.  Florence kind of stalled and was large and wet...and just sat on the South Carolina/North Carolina border area...and has left a lot of water.

As I sit here at 9:00 am Sun Sept 16, 2018, we've had strong winds and rain since about 10 pm last night, off and on.  That may well last for another 24 hours.

And then it will move on up into the northeast...thank heaven.

New Bern NC from BBC on Sun. 9.16.18

BBC News says (Sun. 5 am EDT)...(in case you've been without power and not heard this which is being repeatedly said on US news reports).

US east coast communities face "epic amounts of rainfall" from storm Florence, which has been linked to at least 12 deaths.

It has caused catastrophic flooding since arriving as a category one hurricane on Friday.

Some towns have already seen 2ft (60cm) of rain in two days, with totals forecast to top 3.5ft (1m) in places.

It is feared that more communities could become deluged as the storm crawls west at only 2mph (3km/h).

Florence, which started out as a hurricane, has now weakened to a depression, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Sunday, but flash flooding and river floods will continue over a significant portion of the Carolinas. 

"This system is unloading epic amounts of rainfall, in some places measured in feet and not inches," North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said on Saturday.

It's more than likely that I'll lose power at some point, since the water on the ground means tree roots can let them fall on electric lines, as well as wind breaking off branches onto electric lines.  As of this morning there are segments of I-40 and I-95 that are flooded and closed.

So flooding is expected for the next 2 days.

I dare say it will have more impacts here in NC, and I'll be hearing from my friends as to their own storm stories.  Have you got something to share? Comment please, if you will.

****************************
But wait...another storm, Mangkhut, has hit the Phillipeans and is headed to Hong Kong.

Debris from houses destroyed by Typhoon Mangkhut lay scattered on the ground in Tuguegarao city in northeastern Philippines, on Sunday, September 16.

Ted Aljibe/AFP/Getty Images as published on CNN 9.16.18

More people have died from Mangkhut in the Phillipeans than from Florence, as of now.

Lunch in Chapel Hill

I was thrilled to visit Chapel Hill NC for lunch...one of my favorite places to stop when visiting my friend nearby.  She is an alumnus of that University, so knows a lot about the town.  I would get completely lost without her.

 Pretty little shops line the roadway.

 There must be a zoning ordinance that the buildings must look somewhat colonial

 Though classes weren't in session, the pedestrian and bicyclists are of high importance.

 And a hand greeting mural by a parking lot was a bit modern.

We were aiming for the Mediterranean deli... where I was looking forward to a couple of taste treats.

 It wasn't that crowded, but always seems noisy. 

 My falafel sandwich was wonderful!

It was a bit too muggy Aug. 22 to eat outside.  I was dismayed to see the nearby bookstore had closed, where there had been an ever present book store cat.  I wonder where the cat went.

Florence Sat updates...

8 am here's a link to the radar...I don't know if it will stay the same or update throughout the day.  This is new stuff to me...though the rain coming will just be the same old thing.  I thought as I woke up a while ago, I'd better cook some of the sausage that's in the freezer, so I can eat it if the power goes out. (when?)

Link to radar of Florence ...
If you hit the play button, apparently it updates to the latest hour!

We got gentle falling rain in Black Mountain at 9:30 am.  I went to the tailgate market and got some necessities.

Or here's the NOA map of current forecast of path, very slow moving storm, and the winds have somewhat abated, which is good.  The amount of water isn't.  I heard on last night's report on the Weather Channel that it's about 500 miles across.  It's cloudy here this morning.

Florence Fri morning update/ afternoon 1 pm update

Just woke up...the power is still on, though at 1:30 am the power company sent a notice saying it was out in some parts of our area.  Glad it wasn't. Glad I slept through that notice.  Tonight I'll put the ringer on high, though who wants to wake up to that message, anyway?

At 8:00 am Fri...the eye has come ashore but the weather center is talking about it possibly going back over water, since it's forward motion of 5 mph has it being a wobble.  It's only a level 1 hurricane at this time.  There are some tornadoes being spawned in the red section of the storm...still 100 mph plus winds.  Flooding is due to river waters being pushed back upstream by the wind and rain.  It came ashore at Wrightsville Beach at 7:15 this morning.  Right now there isn't a storm surge where the Weather Channel people are standing along the beach, because the wind has turned to blowing against the ocean.

Hope everyone is safe.

Update at 1:00 pm Fri. Sept 14...

Hurricane Florence Tropical Cyclone Update
NWS National Hurricane Center Miami FL       AL062018
100 PM EDT Fri Sep 14 2018

...100 PM EDT POSITION UPDATE...
...FLORENCE WEAKENING AS IT MOVES FARTHER INLAND OVER EXTREME
SOUTHEASTERN NORTH CAROLINA...
...TORRENTIAL RAINS WILL CONTINUE...

NOAA Doppler weather radar data and surface observations indicate
that the center of Hurricane Florence has continued to move slowly
westward toward the North Carolina-South Carolina border.

Doppler radar data along with wind data from an Air Force Reserve
hurricane hunter aircraft indicate that Florence's maximum
sustained winds have decreased to 75 mph (120 km/h). Nearby surface
observations indicate that the pressure has risen to 968 mb (28.58
inches).

Heavy rain has been occurring in and around Oriental, North
Carolina, where 20.37 inches of rainfall has been measured thus far.

SUMMARY OF 100 PM EDT...1700 UTC...INFORMATION
----------------------------------------------
LOCATION...34.0N 78.3W
ABOUT 30 MI...55 KM WSW OF WILMINGTON NORTH CAROLINA
ABOUT 35 MI...65 KM NE OF MYRTLE BEACH SOUTH CAROLINA
MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...75 MPH...120 KM/H
PRESENT MOVEMENT...W OR 270 DEGREES AT 6 MPH...9 KM/H
MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE...968 MB...28.58 INCHES

$$
Forecaster Stewart

Rainfall potential for Black Mountain from Florence

Created at 4 am Sept 13, with orange tint giving us a projection of 6-10 inches of rain here in the mountains of North Carolina.

There are other maps which don't forecast quite as much rain for the Asheville area.  We are getting ready for the worst, because as of Sunday it may happen.