HURRICANE FLORENCE CREATES PRICE GOUGING CRISIS IN NORTH CAROLINA:
MORE THAN 500 REPORTED INCIDENTS OF BUSINESSES FINANCIALLY ABUSING HURRICANE VICTIMS, INCLUDING GAS STATIONS & HOTELS.
THIS IS UNTHINKABLE & GREEDY.
EACH BUSINESS PRACTICING PRICE GOUGING SHOULD BE HARSHLY PROSECUTED.
Post Sources: CBS News, CNN, NCDOJ, WRAL, Youtube
***** There have been more than 500 reports of price gouging in North Carolina after Florence
When North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper declared a state of emergency ahead of Hurricane Florence, the state's price gouging law went into effect.
The law mandates that businesses in the state aren't allowed to spike prices during any natural disaster for necessary items like food, water and hotel rooms.
But so far, the North Carolina Attorney General's office has received more than 500 complaints.
Residents have complained of exorbitant markups on such items as gas and water, Attorney General Josh Stein Stein said Sunday.
Stein said his office is also getting reports of hotels over-charging evacuees.
The price gouging law will be in place until Governor Roy Cooper lifts the state of emergency.
Stein also warned storm victims to be vigilant when repairing their homes after the storm and look out for price gouging and scams.
Businesses that charge too much may have to refund customers and pay up to $5,000 for every violation.
To report, potential price gouging in North Carolina, call 1-877-5-NO-SCAM or file a complaint at www.ncdoj.gov.
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NORTH CAROLINA PRICE GOUGING LAW IN EFFECT
Release date: 9/10/2018
(RALEIGH) The price gouging law that protects consumers from scammers is now in effect in North Carolina after Governor Roy Cooper declared a state of emergency for the state as Hurricane Florence moves toward the coast. Attorney General Josh Stein notified businesses and consumers today to be on the lookout for any issues.
“My office is here to protect North Carolinians from scams and frauds,” said Attorney General Josh Stein. “That is true all the time – but especially during severe weather. It is against the law to charge an excessive price during a state of emergency. If you see a business taking advantage of this storm, either before or after it hits, please let my office know so we can hold them accountable.”
North Carolina has a strong statute against price gouging – charging too much during a time of crisis – that is tied directly to a declaration of a state of emergency. When Governor Cooper declared a state of emergency for North Carolina on Friday, September 7, the statute went into effect for the entire state and will remain so until the state of emergency is lifted.
Attorney General Stein and the North Carolina Department of Justice will be reviewing complaints from consumers closely over the next several weeks and are prepared to take action against any businesses engaging in price gouging activities. Please report potential price gouging by calling 1-877-5-NO-SCAM or file a complaint at www.ncdoj.gov.
KAIDEN LEE-WELCH, 1, VICTIM OF HURRICANE FLORENCE - BODY FOUND TODAY:
PLEASE CONTINUE TO PRAY & VOLUNTEER TO HELP THE CITIZENS OF NORTH CAROLINA.
Post Sources: Charlotte Observer, NBC News, The State, Youtube
**** Florence’s toll: Infant killed by tree, 1-year-old swept away, killed by floodwaters
This story was updated at 10:45 a.m. Monday.
Rescue workers in Union County on Monday found the body of a 1-year-old boy who was swept away in floodwaters on Sunday, adding to Tropical Storm Florence’s death toll.
The Union County Sheriff’s Office said shortly after 10 a.m. that the boy’s body had been recovered. Investigators said his mother drove around barricades on a flooded section of N.C. 218.
Kaiden Lee-Welch’s mother was driving east towards Wadesboro, investigators said, when her car was floated off the road by waters from nearby Richardson Creek.
“Her vehicle left the roadway and came to rest amongst a group of trees,” the Union County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. “She managed to free herself and Kaiden, who was in a car seat, but lost her grip on him in the rushing water.”
On Monday, a Union County Sheriff’s deputy guarding the barricade on NC-218 said he’s been here since 1992 and has never seen the water so high.
Two rescue workers were seen coming out of a flooded soybean field near the road, carrying what appeared to be a container covered with a white blanket shortly after 10:30 am as a helicopter hovered overhead.
Elsewhere in Union County, deputies also recovered a man’s body in Marshville on Monday morning.
Observer news partner WBTV reported he was found beside a car after floodwaters receded on Landsford Drive.
In Dallas, N.C., an infant boy was the first person reported killed by the storm in the Charlotte area.
Kade Gill died Sunday after a large pine tree fell on his mobile home Sunday afternoon, Gaston County police confirmed. Sunday was also the day he turned three months old, reported Observer news partner WBTV.
The Charlotte region was starting to dry out Monday and clean up after Florence’s soaking, which delivered 11 inches or more to parts of the city and sent creeks and streams overflowing their banks.
Monday morning, 12,385 customers in Charlotte remained without power, Duke Energy reported, along with almost 4,000 in surrounding counties. City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County offices remained closed.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools were canceled for the third straight day, leaving 148,000 students and the children who attend daycares linked to the CMS calendar home again.
In Dallas, police said a three-month-old boy was at home with family members on Moses Court, off Old Willis School Road, around 12:45 p.m. Sunday when the tree fell.
“It basically just cut the trailer in half,” Gaston County Police Capt. Jon Leatherwood said.
The boy was pronounced dead at Carolinas Medical Center Sunday afternoon, Leatherwood said.
The Gaston Gazette identified his parents as Olen and Tammy Gill, and said the boy was in his mother’s arms on the couch when the tree crashed through the home and struck him in the head. Tammy Gill was hospitalized at CaroMont Regional Medical Center and released Sunday, the newspaper reported.
Kade Gill was alive and crying when his parents pulled him from the home, reported the Observer’s news partner WBTV.
“The tree had divided us,” Kade’s father, Olen Gill, told WBTV. “So I am in the kitchen. She (Kade’s mother) is in the living room on the couch. I had to come out and rip the air conditioner out of the window, and that’s when we handed him through the window.”
Including this case, Hurricane Florence has killed at least 17 people in the Carolinas. Eleven of those fatalities were in North Carolina.
Partial levee breach
A flash flood warning had been issued for southwestern Rowan County until 11:45 p.m. Sunday, the National Weather Service said.
It also said that at 8:44 p.m., “Rowan County Emergency Management is reporting a partial breach of the Lake Corriher levee in Landis.”
But it appeared Monday morning that the remainder of the levee would hold.
“Due to the decrease in heavy rainfall, water levels have receded from the dam and levee,” Rowan County Emergency Management said in a statement. They planned to continue monitoring the situation. Landis is about 30 miles northeast of Charlotte.
Rising creeks
Meanwhile, creeks rose all over the Charlotte area Sunday afternoon. The southern part of Mecklenburg County and its neighbors to the southeast faced particular trouble.
Rain gauges there measured massive rainfall over the past three days: 10.9 inches at Matthews Elementary School, 11 inches nearby on U.S. 74, 10.2 inches at McAlpine and Sardis roads.
At 1:30 p.m., after much of the metro area had been pelted since early morning with gusting winds and sheets of rain, the National Weather Service issued a rare emergency flood warning for south Charlotte, Pineville, Matthews and Mint Hill. There, the drainage basins of some of Mecklenburg County’s best-known creeks began spilling over into roadways, bridges and neighborhoods.
The emergency warning was quickly extended to Union and York counties.
The weather service told residents in the quickly expanding emergency flash-flood area that they faced an “extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation,” and the agency urged people not to travel unless they were evacuating.
“SEEK HIGHER GROUND NOW!” the weather service said in an unusually urgent Sunday afternoon statement.
In Union, afternoon flooding had already closed roads and bridges and set off home rescues, authorities said. At 4:15 p.m., the county Emergency Management Service announced a 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew due to worsening conditions.
By 4 p.m., several creeks had risen above flood stage, the National Weather Service said. The Weather Service said McAlpine Creek would flood homes around Colony Road and Weirton Place and Little Sugar Creek was likely to flood homes near Archdale Drive.
Buildings near Addison Drive in southeast Charlotte were already taking on water from McMullen Creek, the National Weather Service said, and buildings along N.C. 51 in Pineville are at risk of flooding.
“At least 20 roads have been closed due to floodwaters in the southern part of (Mecklenburg) county. Travel is dangerous,” the National Weather Service said.
The threat of similar flooding is expected to cross the state line later today and move south into the fast-growing York County cities of Fort Mill, Rock Hill and Tega Cay, the weather service said.
Meanwhile, flooding along the Catawba River could come as early as Monday, Duke Energy says.
Doug Outlaw, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Office in Greenville-Spartanburg, said bands of rain from the remains of Florence moving across South Carolina set off widespread flooding throughout Chesterfield County, S.C., then crossed the state line into Union County. There, rising creeks fed by rainfall and runoff crested bridges and roads, and forced home evacuations, he said.
In south Mecklenburg, rain also brought the water levels in Briar Creek, McMullen Creek and Little Sugar Creek to near flood stage, leading the weather service to issue the rare emergency flood warning, Outlaw said.
Across the region, Duke Energy says water could begin spilling out of several of its lakes above and below Charlotte starting as early as Monday evening, utility spokeswoman Kim Crawford told the Observer on Sunday.
The most immediate flooding threats are to areas along lakes James, Rhodhiss and Lookout Shoals, Crawford said, where the reservoirs are expected to be several feet above full pond by Monday evening, Crawford said.
Duke is also monitoring Mountain Island Lake, a major source of the region’s drinking water. But Crawford said Duke’s fears of flooding there have eased for now due to tapering rainfall in that part of the county.
Elsewhere, as the rainfall and runoff move southward, and are passed dam to dam around Charlotte, the flood threat moves into Duke’s reservoirs in South Carolina. The threat is particularly heightened at Lake Wateree, the last and lowest reservoir on the chain.
Catawba Riverkeeper Sam Perkins says the combination of rainfall and runoff will plague the Catawba basin for days or even weeks to come.
Duke began preparing for the arrival of Florence weeks ago by lowering water levels 4 to 5 feet in its four biggest reservoirs — James, Norman, Wylie and Wateree — in anticipation of what Florence was expected to dump across the region.
All that will be compounded by a massive runoff from the river’s countless tributaries, stretching hundreds of miles from the mountains to the S.C. Upstate.
As with rainfall, the bulk of the power outages appear to have occurred in the more heavily populated area of the region, according to Duke Energy.
The number of Mecklenburg County residents doubled throughout Sunday morning, to almost 30,000. At midday, Union County had 5,100 Duke customers without power; Gaston County, 3,800; and York County, 3,200.
By comparison, in New Hanover County/Wilmington alone, where the storm made landfall last week, the outages approached 104,000. Duke estimated that as many as three-quarters of its N.C. customers, or 3 million in all, could lose power before the storm ends.
Much of the Charlotte area and Western North Carolina remained under a flash flood watch into Monday morning.
The National Weather Service says the South Fork River in Gaston County is expected to crest at 6 1/2 feet above flood stage on Monday, threatening roads, bridges, parks and homes, particularly in and around Cramerton.
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***** North Carolina 1-year-old missing after being swept away by rushing floodwater
Kaiden Lee's mother lost her grip on the child's hand after getting out of their car.
The search resumed Monday morning, according to officials.
A North Carolina 1-year-old was swept away by rushing floodwaters caused by Florence after his mother lost her grip on the child.
Search and rescue teams spent hours looking for Kaiden Lee-Welch overnight on Sunday into Monday after water from the deadly storm flooded the highway his mother was driving on as she headed east to Wadesboro, North Carolina.
"I was holding his hand, trying to hold him, trying to pull him up ... I couldn't hold on anymore, and he let go," Lee's mother told FOX 46 WJZY.
The search for Kaiden resumed Monday morning, Union County Sheriff's Office said in a Facebook post.
Kaiden's mother, identified as Dazia Lee by FOX 46 WJZY, told authorities she drove around a barricade on North Carolina Highway 218 toward Wadesboro, when she encountered the swift water rising from Richardson Creek.
The water pushed her car off of the road and and left her stuck in a group of trees, according to police.
Lee was able to get Kaiden out of the car, but the water caused her to lose her grip.
Lee sobbed as she described her son to the local news outlet.
"My son is 1 years old. He's the sweetest boy you could ever have," she said.
It was not immediately clear why Lee was traveling on the highway.
"I did everything everything I could from the moment I was pregnant to the moment I lost him. I did everything I could as a parent to save him and protect him," she said.
Family members joined police in searching for the boy overnight. Police urged residents to avoid Highway 218 due to ongoing flooding.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said on Sunday that flood waters were raging across the state and have created an enormous risk for residents of the state.
With Florence, which has been downgraded to a tropical depression, making its way across the region, flash flood warnings were in effect across much of North Carolina, as well as in northeast South Carolina and southwest Virginia, according to the National Hurricane Center.
The storm is responsible for at least 17 deaths, with the majority the victims located in North Carolina. Two babies and a mother were killed in separate incidents in Gaston County and Wilmington.
IT’S NOT OVER YET - THE AFTERMATH IS WORSE THAN STORM.
HURRICANE FLORENCE DEVASTATES NORTH CAROLINA -
DEATH TOLL IS RISING.
COAST GUARD CALLED IN FOR SEARCH AND RESCUE.
HELP & PRAYER NEEDED FOR NC RESIDENTS.
Post Sources: Charlotte Observer, CNN, Fox News, Weather.com, WRAL, Youtube
***** Storm of a lifetime
For days, residents had been told to heed the warnings. Hurricane Florence, at its peak a Category 5, would be the "storm of a lifetime"for portions of the Carolina coast," the National Weather Service said.
It would bring powerful wind, relentless rain and life-threatening storm surge to an area that wasn't used to hurricanes.
More than 1 million people were under mandatory evacuation orders as the storm crawled toward the East Coast.
t would soon become clear why residents had been told to leave.
The calm before the storm
As Florence twisted over the Atlantic Ocean Thursday morning, 65-year-old Deb Frese took a walk along the shoreline. The Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, resident knew the storm could be keeping her inside for a while, so she wanted to fit in one last stroll.
Frese lived in the evacuation zone, about a mile from the beach, but she chose to ride the storm out in her home.
"Flooding, that's the biggest concern," said Frese. She also recognized that she might have to make do without power. But with a stockpile of food, batteries and lanterns, she was prepared to hunker down for "at least a week," she said.
"Then I might have to go."
'This is just the beginning'
By Thursday afternoon, Florence's wind speeds had dropped, and the storm was classified as a Category 2. But forecasters said its biggest threats remained: potentially deadly storm surge, flooding, and what was expected to be a historic rain event.
In New Bern, North Carolina, along the banks of the Neuse River, a CNN crew watched the water rise and flood Union Point Park until they were forced to leave.
Todd Willis, a resident of Kennel Beach, North Carolina, shared video on Facebook of tidal flooding. It was early in the afternoon, and water was already collecting beneath homes lofted on stilts. Some water inched up to the road as Willis drove by.
"This is just the beginning," he said. "It hasn't even gotten here yet and there's already water (in the) bottom parts of people's houses."
By evening, the storm was downgraded to a Category 1. But conditions continued to deteriorate into the night, as thousands of evacuees slept in emergency shelters.
Annazette Riley-Cromartie's home in eastern North Carolina began to flood around midnight. As her kids tried to sleep in a top bunk, her husband could hear voices in the distance.
"While we were still waiting, my husband kept hearing people yelling for help," she told CNN's Anderson Cooper, her voice thick with emotion. Her 6-foot-2 husband tried to go out and help, she said, but the water was already above his chest.
"You just keep hearing people yelling, and you can't do anything," she said. "It's the worst feeling in the world."
Back in New Bern, 200 people trapped in their homes were plucked from the water overnight.
"WE ARE COMING TO GET YOU," the city tweeted. "You may need to move up to the second story, or to your attic, but WE ARE COMING TO GET YOU."
By sunrise Friday, the town had seen about 7 inches of rainfall and 10 feet of storm surge, and scores of people still needed saving.
Trapped by floodwater
At 7:15 a.m., Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, became eerily calm as the eye of Hurricane Florence, now a Category 1 storm, loomed overhead.
Florence, with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph, had made landfall.
Trees swayed from the wind and toppled over, blocking roads. Deserted streets flooded and swollen rivers escaped their banks. Power transformers exploded in bursts of light like fireworks, leaving hundreds of thousands of electric customers in the dark. Whole neighborhoods soon became swamps.
Back in New Bern, the Cajun Navy and other ragtag teams of volunteers joined emergency responders to rescue people from the rising water.
As water poured into their homes, residents sought refuge in attics.
"In a matter of seconds, my house was flooded up to the waist, and now it is to the chest," Peggy Perry told CNN's Chris Cuomo Friday morning.
"We have been up here for like three or four hours."
In River Bend, south of New Bern, a man shouted out of his open window at a small boat that had been left behind and commandeered by the Maryland Swift Water Rescue Team.
But when they asked if he needed help, the man said no.
He had everything he needed, he said. He just wanted to say hello.
The first deaths
A tree came crashing down on a house in Wilmington, North Carolina.
A family of three was inside the home, and emergency responders worked for hours to save them.
In the afternoon, authorities confirmed that a woman and her infant daughter were dead -- the first known deaths attributed to Florence. The child's father was taken to a local hospital.
A group of firefighters who had rushed to the scene were shaken. They knelt outside the home in a circle and began to pray.
It's time to go'
By Friday evening, Florence had been downgraded to a Tropical Storm.
But the rain showed no signs of abating and rivers continued to spill over their banks.
On Saturday morning, the National Weather Service warned of the possibility of "catastrophic flooding."
"We face walls of water at our coast, along our rivers, across farmland, in our cities and in our towns," North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper told reporters that morning. "More people now are facing imminent threat than when the storm was just off shore."
Susan Bostic and her family had initially planned to wait out the storm in their Rocky Point, North Carolina home, not far from the Cape Fear River.
They changed their minds on Saturday, as water from the river spilled onto their property, collecting in big pools on the ground.
Bostic had lived through Hurricane Floyd in 1999, she said, and it took everything -- cars, clothes, her home.
"And they're expecting this to be even higher," she said. "So we know it's time to go."
About 40 miles to the northeast, in Jacksonville, North Carolina, Marti Dias was grappling with the same realization. She watched water from the New River slowly creep up her street, mailboxes jutting above the surface. Some of her neighbors had already left. It was time to go.
"I'm not going to lie, I cried this morning," she told CNN. "I broke down and cried."
Residents of Lumberton, North Carolina, also kept a wary eye on their own Lumber River, which quickly rose foot after foot as heavy rains continued to drench the state. The river had inundated Lumberton two years before, during Hurricane Matthew, and city officials scrambled this week to plug a hole in the town's levee system.
As floodwaters rose, roads quickly became impassable. An abandoned car was left running idle in the street with water lapping at the passenger windows.
That night, emergency responders and volunteers in Wilmington, North Carolina, made about 700 rescues; Pender County conducted 172, and lost two ambulances in the floodwaters.
By the end of the day, 13 people would be confirmed dead, several of them from flash flooding.
On Saturday evening, Hailey Burgalow was traveling to Virginia with her sister, her sister's boyfriend and her aunt when they hit flooding on Interstate 95, forcing them to pull off and venture into Lumberton.
The town was still in the process of recovering from Hurricane Matthew, and many homes appeared to be abandoned or in disrepair, their windows boarded up and weeds growing tall in the yards.
The group parked at a gas station and tried to get some sleep in the car, Burgalow told CNN. Eventually, a police officer stopped, and they asked him if there was any way to make their way north. There wasn't, the officer told them. He directed them to a shelter that was filled with evacuees.
"They ran out of cots and blankets," Burgalow told CNN. "It was super crowded, but we were thankful."
On Sunday morning, Burgalow and her family realized they were stuck there.
Flooded roads and fragile levees
The National Hurricane Center issued its final advisory for Florence on Sunday morning as the storm, crawling inland, weakened to a tropical depression with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph -- but plenty of rain was still on its way.
The center said in its last advisory that southeast North Carolina could see up to 40 inches of rain, and also warned of the risks of landslides across western North Carolina and southwest Virginia.
Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo called the flooding in the northern part of the county a "phenomenon," and "something we've never seen before." The city was essentially cut off from the rest of the state because of high waters, he said.
Any direction you try coming into the city -- from 20 to 40 miles out, roads are impassable," he said. "Anyone trying to get in here -- don't try. You will be turned away."
The Lumber River was close to 25 feet high by midday -- 12 feet above flood stage. At 26 feet, Lumberton city officials said, the levee around the river could be overwhelmed.
At that point, "all bets are off," said Corey Walters, deputy director of Public Works.
The rain had slowed down overnight, he said, giving officials another chance to try and plug the gap in the levee system -- but Walters didn't sound optimistic.
"Our crews are taking one more crack at trying to stop it," Walters said. "We're just fighting time here. There's another rain band that's going to be coming through and we know it. We're expecting to get another 4 to 6 inches."
Water began seeping beneath the sand barriers workers had placed there Sunday afternoon.
Bobby Hunt was just about finished packing belongings into the back of his pickup truck.
"Y'all ready? Lets get in the truck and get out of here," Hunt told his wife and cousin as they prepared to leave their boarded-up Lumberton home, which still bore the damage from Hurricane Matthew.
That storm had caught them by surprise with flooding in the middle of the night, he told CNN.
But after being told by the city that the levee could be overwhelmed, the family didn't hesitate to leave.
On Sunday, Bostic, who fled her Rocky Point home the day before, learned she and her family got out just in time.
Her home, about 200 yards from the river bank, was submerged, and the water was still rising.
Nearly 20 years after Bostic lost almost everything to Hurricane Floyd, Florence would also force her to start over.
It's not over
On Sunday, two more deaths were confirmed in South Carolina, bringing the toll to at least 18.
Hundreds upon hundreds had been rescued in the Carolinas.
There were at least 170 patients in four medical shelters across the state, and officials believed more would be on their way as the rescues and flooding continued throughout the day.
Pender County, North Carolina officials said they had received 300 calls for help by Sunday.
Rescue attempts and other essential services were hindered by a lack of fuel.
Gov. Cooper accompanied the Coast Guard on a flyover of flooded areas in North Carolina.
He said he saw significant flooding in the farmland of Jacksonville and throughout Onslow County.
In New Bern, where the drama of Friday morning had significantly diminished, the governor saw boats washed up in town and significant debris.
Flying over Fayetteville, he said, "it was stark to see the raging Cape Fear River, and you knew it was rising and you could see these vulnerable communities."
We've got a tall task ahead," Cooper said.
The rain had slowed a little in Fayetteville, but officials there worried that would lure residents into a false sense of security and prompt them to make their way back.
"We're going to get hammered," said Kevin Arata, the city's director of communications.
FLORENCE DOWNGRADES TO CATEGORY 2 BUT STILL VERY DANGEROUS.
PREPARE & CONTINUE TO PRAY (PSALM 91).
Post Sources: Charlotte Observer, Fox News, Youtube
***** Charlotte at ‘extreme’ risk for flooding this weekend
Friday, 8:35 a.m. There’s little deviation in the National Hurricane Center’s 8 a.m. track for Florence, which shows the storm is expected to move south and west across South Carolina through Saturday before turning north and west into North Carolina.
The storm is expected to cross the Columbia, S.C. region on Saturday. Charlotte is in line for 10 to 15 inches of rain and potential tropical storm-force winds, the National Hurricane Center predicts.
Friday, 8 a.m.
The National Weather Service’s Greer, S.C. office is predicting Charlotte will receive a massive deluge this weekend as Florence moves inland. That’s elevated the risk for flooding to “extreme” in Charlotte and the surrounding counties for Saturday and Sunday.
A flash flood watch will be in effect this weekend for most of the region. The Charlotte area could receive a foot or more of rain, the weather service is predicting.
Florence’s 5 a.m. track from the National Hurricane Center shows the storm moving across Columbia, S.C. on Saturday afternoon, before turning northwest and heading for North Carolina. That would bring it near the Charlotte region as a tropical storm or tropical depression, dumping heavy rain before moving into Tennessee and Virginia early Monday.
Florence drops to Cat 1, but still ‘life-threatening’
Thursday, 11 p.m.: Florence was downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane but was delivering “life-threatening storm surge” along the NC coast, the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory. Florence had 90 mph winds, and the “threat of freshwater flooding will increase” in the days ahead, according to the advisory. The storm was about 60 miles east of Wilmington.
Islamic Center opens doors to evacuees
Thursday, 9:24 p.m.: The Islamic Center of Charlotte, 1700 Progress Lane, tweeted that it is partnering with United Muslim Relief to provide fresh water and basic aid packs to evacuees and is “opening our doors as a shelter ... to help those in need.“
Charlotte braces for more rain than expected
Thursday, 8:21 p.m.: Charlotte’s airport can expect 10.83 inches of rain during Florence, according to the latest projected rainfall totals from the National Weather Service office in Greer, S.C. That’s up significantly from Wednesday’s NWS estimate of 6.3 inches.
Areas to the south and east of Charlotte could see even more rain and flooding — 14.5 inches in Monroe, 13.67 inches in Concord, 14.7 inches in Albemarle and 18.46 inches in Anson County, said meteorologist Doug Outlaw of the National Weather Service in Greer, S.C.
Higher amounts also are forecast for cities to the west of Charlotte, with Gastonia at 9.64 inches, Lincolnton 8.78 inches and Shelby 6.8 inches.
The mountains should see far smaller amounts, according to Outlaw, with only 3.54 inches anticipated in Asheville.
Government offices to close at noon Friday
Thursday, 5:03 p.m.: City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County government offices will close at noon Friday ahead of the storm, the city and county announced in a joint news release.
CharMeck 311 and 911 emergency services will remain active. CharMeck 311 will operate from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Volunteers respond to call to deliver meals to shut-ins
Thursday, 4:52 p.m.: Friendship Trays, the nonprofit that provides meals for shut-ins, the elderly and people who can’t cook for themselves, was overwhelmed with help Thursday after putting out word on social media that they needed volunteer drivers, said executive director Lucy Carter Bush. So many people stepped up, they couldn’t answer all the messages.
“It was wild,” she said. “We got what we needed and then some.”
Friendship Trays was delivering both meals and emergency packs with canned goods, to make sure their clients could get through the weekend.
Monday is still up in the air, Bush said. Since no one knows how conditions will develop over the weekend, she doesn’t yet know if they’ll be able to make deliveries. If they can, they will need more volunteers, she said.
They’ll post updates on the website, www.friendships.org, and through a recording on their phone line, 704-333-9229.
Mecklenburg County jail inmates allowed free calls
Thursday, 4:33 p.m.: Sheriff Irwin Carmichael approved a request from Global Tel Link Inc. to offer inmates two free 5-minute phone calls per day Thursday through Saturday.
“We know how important it is to get reassurances from loved ones that they are taking the necessary steps to prepare,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release.
Plenty of space at Red Cross shelters
Thursday, 4 p.m.: The Observer visited each of the Charlotte area’s five Red Cross shelters on Thursday, and all five had plenty of space available.
The busiest, at East Mecklenburg High School, had only about a quarter of its beds occupied at midday. Several shelters were almost empty Thursday.
All of the shelters accept pets, and by 4 p.m. Thursday, the North Mecklenburg High shelter was housing two dogs, two cats and a bearded dragon.
Islamic Center opens doors to evacuees
Thursday, 9:24 p.m.: The Islamic Center of Charlotte, 1700 Progress Lane, tweeted that it is partnering with United Muslim Relief to provide fresh water and basic aid packs to evacuees and is “opening our doors as a shelter ... to help those in need.“
CharMeck 311 and 911 emergency services will remain active. CharMeck 311 will operate from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Post Sources: FEMA, NBC News, Washington Post, WRAL, Youtube
***** FEMA already setting up Florence relief operation at Fort Bragg
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is setting up its relief operation for Hurricane Florence even before the massive storm hits North Carolina.
FEMA tractor-trailers filled with water and non-perishable food began rolling in Monday at Simmons Army Airfield on Fort Bragg. Officials said the staging area will provide hurricane relief to South Carolina and parts of Virginia as well as to North Carolina.
Portable generators – some large enough to power a small city – sit on flatbed trailers at the staging area.
Gov. Roy Cooper said officials have learned from past hurricanes that flooded roads and downed trees and power lines can make it hard to get supplies distributed after the storm, so he asked FEMA to move some of the supplies closer to areas that are likely to be hardest hit by Florence.
On Tuesday afternoon, Cooper met with the FEMA team at Fort Bragg and was briefed on the supplies on hand.
"We've distributed to a number of areas now because we know that they will be needed," he said. "Food, water, supplies, cots, generators are already being distributed out there in places that we know will need it."
Meanwhile, about 80 Black Hawk and Apache Longbow helicopters flew out of Simmons Army Airfield earlier Tuesday to a location near Atlanta to get out of Florence's path.
The Black Hawk helicopters could be used to help with hurricane relief efforts, if requested by the governor. But the Apache helicopters are purely fighting machines and wouldn't be useful in hurricane relief.
"If we lose these aircraft to a storm, it impacts our ability to be ready in case of any type of contingency world-round," said LTC Bryan Hummel, of the 82nd Airborne Division's Combat Aviation Brigade. "So we got to make sure we get them out and get them in a safe location, and then when the storm's passed – a couple of days after that – most likely we'll go back and recover them back here, and we'll continue to start training."
Because the Apache helicopters cost $16 million to $20 million each, it's also cheaper to fly the 80 aircraft to Georgia that risk any of them being damaged in the storm.
HURRICANE FLORENCE ENCOURAGES MASS EXODUS TO SAFETY (EVACUATIONS):
MORE THAN ONE MILLION EVACUATIONS ORDERED BY SEVERAL GOVERNORS.
PREPARE AND PRAY - PSALM 91.
"9 Because you have made the Lord your refuge, and the Most High your dwelling place,
10 There shall no evil befall you, nor any plague or calamity come near your tent.
11 For He will give His angels [especial] charge over you to accompany and defend and preserve you in all your ways [of obedience and service].
12 They shall bear you up on their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone.
13 You shall tread upon the lion and adder; the young lion and the serpent shall you trample underfoot.
14 Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him; I will set him on high, because he knows and understands My name [has a personal knowledge of My mercy, love, and kindness—trusts and relies on Me, knowing I will never forsake him, no, never].
15 He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.
16 With long life will I satisfy him and show him My salvation."
Post Sources: NY Times, CBS News, Youtube
**** Hurricane Florence Threatens Carolinas; 1 Million Ordered to Evacuate
With Hurricane Florence swiftly gaining strength and bearing down on the Southeast, Gov. Henry McMaster of South Carolina on Monday ordered more than a million people living in eight coastal counties to evacuate inland.
“We do not want to risk one South Carolina life in this hurricane,” the governor said at a news conference Monday afternoon.
Evacuations were also ordered in parts of North Carolina as the region braced for a major destructive hurricane projected to make landfall late Thursday or Friday, with damaging winds, torrential rains and a potentially destructive storm surge.
The South Carolina evacuation order takes effect at noon Tuesday. Governor McMaster said that lanes of two major divided highways — Interstate 26 and U.S. 501 — would be reversed to make the roads one-way, carrying traffic only away from the coast, and that two others may also be reversed if needed. Schools and state offices in about half the state would be closed starting on Tuesday, the governor said.
Hurricane Florence swiftly strengthened into a major storm on Monday as it churned across the Atlantic Ocean toward the coast of the Carolinas. By 5 p.m. Eastern Time, the storm had maximum sustained winds of 140 miles an hour with higher gusts, according to the National Hurricane Center, and “further strengthening is anticipated.”
The center upgraded the storm at noon to Category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson scale of intensity, only an hour after upgrading it to Category 3.
Forecasting models show the hurricane headed for a landfall somewhere near the border of North Carolina and South Carolina. Destructive winds extending as far as 150 miles in all directions from the storm’s center may be felt on shore as soon as Wednesday night.
President Trump, who was criticized for his response to the crisis in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria last year, signaled that he was on top of this storm in a pair of tweets on Monday.
In coastal Dare County, N.C., the local emergency management agency announced a mandatory evacuation order that took effect Monday at noon, for all residents and visitors on Hatteras Island, the long, slender barrier island off the North Carolina coast.
A similar order will go into effect Tuesday for other nearby communities, including Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, Nags Head, Roanoke Island, Duck, Manteo, Southern Shores and the mainland portion of Dare County, according to a statement from the county.
Social media users reported that stores in both states were being bought out of bottled water and other supplies as residents prepared for the storm.
The hurricane center warned that in addition to damaging winds, the “extremely dangerous” storm posed two kinds of flooding threats — a storm surge of salt water along the coast, and freshwater flooding inland from very heavy rains — as well as dangerous surf and riptides along much of the Eastern Seaboard.
STATE OF EMERGENCY - DON’T PLAY WITH THIS APPROACHING STORM.
PREPARE WISELY; PRAY INTENSELY.
Post Sources: AP, Charlotte Observer, Yahoo News, WLTX, Youtube
**** Florence to strengthen into hurricane Sunday, target East Coast as major storm
Florence to strengthen into hurricane Sunday, target East Coast as major storm originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Tropical Storm Florence is expected to intensify into a hurricane on Sunday as it continues to take aim at the United States' southeast coast.
Governors in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina all declared states of emergency over the past two days in anticipation of the hurricane.
"While the impacts of Tropical Storm Florence to Virginia are still uncertain, forecasts increasingly expect the storm to strengthen into a major hurricane that could seriously affect the East Coast and Virginians," Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said Saturday as his state became the latest to declare a state of emergency.
Florence has sustained winds of 70 mph on Sunday morning and is located 765 miles southeast of Bermuda. The storm is moving west at 6 mph. Florence is looking more organized Sunday morning on satellite.
Tropical storm force winds extend 125 miles from the center.
Florence is forecast to move west Sunday, but then begin to turn west-northwest by Monday. The current forecast track brings Florence on approach to the southeast U.S. coast on Thursday as a major and powerful hurricane.
Due to warm ocean temperatures and lack of shear, Florence will be in a very favorable environment for development. The storm is expected to undergo rapid intensification beginning on Sunday night, and will likely become a major hurricane by Monday.
Strong high pressure will develop north of Florence later this week, which should cause the storm to move northwest toward the Southeast coastline. Several forecast models have begun to hint that this high pressure becomes strong enough to cause Florence to slow down tremendously late in the week.
The risk of direct impacts in the U.S. are increasing.
It remains too soon to determine the location and magnitude of impacts from Florence.
The National Hurricane Center is advising "interests along the U.S. East Coast, particularly from North Florida through North Carolina, should closely monitor the progress of Florence, ensure they have their hurricane plan in place and follow any advice given by local officials."
Isaac next to become hurricane
Moving southeast in the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Isaac currently has winds of 50 mph and is moving west at 9 mph. The storm is 1,540 miles east of the Windward Islands. Isaac is forecast to strengthen over the coming days.
The storm is expected to continue moving west in the next few days and become a hurricane by Monday.
Isaac will be near the Lesser Antilles later this week and could bring impacts to parts of the Caribbean Islands during this time frame.
Olivia aiming for Hawaii
In the Pacific, Hurricane Olivia currently has winds of 80 mph, and is approximately 825 miles east-northeast of Hilo, Hawaii.
Olivia is expected to move west through Monday before turning west-southwest late Monday and early Tuesday local time. On the current track, Olivia may be near the Hawaiian Islands by late Tuesday.
Even though Olivia is expected to weaken, it could still bring impacts to the Hawaiian Islands by midweek.
Regardless of forecast track, significant effects from Olivia are possible in Hawaii, which could be enhanced due to the unique terrain of Hawaii.
MANY MEMBERS OF THE U.S. MILITARY RESIDE IN HAWAII.
MORE EVACUATIONS ORDERED.
PRES TRUMP DECLARES MAJOR DISASTER.
PRAY FOR THE PEOPLE OF HAWAII.
Post Sources: CBS News, Fox News, Youtube
***** Hawaii volcano spurs new evacuations on Big Island after lava fissure reported
Officials ordered more evacuations on Sunday for residents on Hawaii’s Big Island after a new lava fissure threatened to send bright orange lava spewing onto major highways and roads.
An 18th fissure caused by the Kilaueau volcano, that first erupted more than a week ago, was reported early Sunday morning, releasing steam and lava spatter west of Highway 132 along Hale Kamahina Loop Road in lower Puna, Hawaii County Civil Defense said. Residents living along that road have been ordered to evacuate.
Two community centers have been opened to shelter people and pets.
Hawaii officials have been on edge throughout the weekend as they monitored reports of two new breakouts around Leilani Estates that could prompt thousands more to evacuate in an instant. The region saw a two-day reprieve from volcanic activity, giving some residents hope until the three new weekend fissures.
The 16th fissure reported on Saturday broke out about a miles east of the Puna Geothermal Venture plant. The 17th one opened about 109 yards below.
A portion of Highway 132, between the “Y” interchange turning into Pohoiki Road and Four Corners, was shut down on Sunday, Hawaii News Now reported. Cracks along the highway have worsened in the last few days, with authorities fearing a 19th fissure can form. Residents have said they fear getting cut off when, not if, the major roadway gets shut down.
"I think everybody recognizes that the lava outbreak is purely unpredictable," resident David Ellis told Hawaii News Now. "I think our greatest danger is being cut off when Highway 132 is closed, and that should be soon, from everything that I hear."
"We assume the worst, and hope for the best," Ellis added.
Tina Neal, USGS scientist-in-charge at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, said the volcano is still “highly active.” The volcano could spew out “hotter, fresher” magma, destroying everything in its path. At least 36 structures, including 27 homes, have been destroyed since the eruptions began. The lave has covered more than 17 acres of land.
"The situation remains unstable. Additional outbreaks of lava are likely."
The new developments over the weekend also prompted the U.S. Geological Survey to warn of possible more disaster to come. Experts are eyeing volcanic peaks on America’s West Coast, part of the geologically active Pacific “Ring of Fire.”
The West Coast is home to an 800-mile chain of 13 volcanoes, from Washington state's Mount Baker to California's Lassen Peak. They include Mount St. Helens, whose spectacular 1980 eruption in the Pacific Northwest killed dozens of people and sent volcanic ash across the country, and massive Mount Rainier, which towers above the Seattle metro area.
"There's lots of anxiety out there," said Liz Westby, geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, Wash. "They see destruction, and people get nervous."
Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano is threatening to blow its top in the coming days or weeks. Scientists say there’s not definitive answer on when the volcanic activity will end.
Geologists warn that Kilauea's summit could have an explosive steam eruption that would hurl rocks and ash miles into the sky.
On Monday morning, Nashville was 40 degrees colder than Albany, New York. Memphis, Tennessee, was 20 degrees colder than Anchorage, Alaska. And Atlanta was colder than Moscow.
But the U.S. South was downright balmy compared to the Great Lakes region, where temperatures hovered in the negative 20s -- before wind chill, which dropped temps to the negative 50s, making it very dangerous to go outside.
The bitter cold that a "polar vortex" is pushing into much of the United States is not just another winter storm. It's the coldest in 20 years in many areas, and breaking some records.
More than 3,500 flights nationwide were canceled by noon ET Monday, according to flightaware.com.
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn declared a statewide disaster and activated the Illinois National Guard to help provide aid.
While the current weather patterns gave the Northeast a bit of a reprieve, it's in for a brutal drop as the arctic air works its way east. New York, where it was about 50 degrees with wind chill Monday morning, could go as low as minus 7 on Tuesday, said CNN meteorologist Indra Petersons. The region could face a 60-degree temperature change in a single day.
The temperature spread within the United States is a stunning 130 degrees, CNN meteorologist Dave Hennen said, with wind chill putting northern Minnesota at 60 below zero, while Key West, Florida, basks in its dreamy 70 degrees. Much of the West can also expect relatively pleasant weather through Tuesday.
But from Minneapolis to Chicago to Milwaukee, people are under health warnings to stay indoors. Many schools have closed.
"Skin freezes in just five minutes with a wind chill of minus 50," said HLN meteorologist Bob Van Dillen.
Frostbite occurs in 10 minutes with wind chills of minus 35, Hennen added.
Over the past week, at least 13 people have died of weather-related causes. Eleven people died in road accidents; one man in Wisconsin died of hypothermia, and an elderly woman with Alzheimer's disease who wandered away from her home in New York state was found dead in the snow in a wooded area about 100 yards away.
Rare warning
In a very rare move, Minneapolis issued a "Particularly Dangerous Situation" warning about the "historic and life-threatening cold." Such warnings are typically issued for tornadoes, said Petersons.
The National Weather Service adopted the Twitter hashtag "#Chiberia" for Chicago, where temperatures were at 14 below zero. (Parts of the vast Siberian region, such as Tobolsk, had Fahrenheit temps in the low teens Monday, though other parts had temperatures of 50 below zero.)
Some of the greatest concern surrounds the tens of thousands of Midwesterners without electricity.
More than 15,000 customers in Indiana, 6,800 in Illinois and 2,200 in Missouri didn't have power overnight, according to utility companies.
Chicago opened up 12 centers for residents to seek warmth, one of which was to stay open all night through Tuesday.
Libraries and some other city facilities would also be open, said Evelyn Diaz of the city's Department of Family and Support Services.
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn said 100 warming centers were open statewide.
The heavy snow falling along much of the mid-Atlantic Coast into New England is expected to taper off Friday as a nor'easter heads into Canada, leaving bitter cold in its wake, the National Weather Service said.
By early morning, the snowfall was nearly finished in the nation's capital; it was expected to stop by late morning in New York City, where 6 inches were covering Central Park, and by early afternoon in Boston, which got socked by nearly 15 inches.
North of Boston, residents of Topsfield, Massachusetts, got nearly 2 feet of snow.
The combination of cold and winds gusting more than 30 mph was expected to lower wind chill temperatures to less than 10 degrees over the mid-Atlantic and into the teens in New England.
And not just the Northeast will be hit, forecasters said.
About one-third of the nation -- approximately 100 million people in 22 states -- is in the path of this storm.
Snow was also predicted from the Upper Midwest into the Great Lakes, with as much as 8 inches expected in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and additional snow possible along a cold front that extends through the Midwest and into the Central Plains, the service said.
Across the country, the weather has snarled travel plans for many.
FlightAware.com, which tracks cancellations due to weather and mechanical problems, said more than 2,000 flights had been canceled for Friday within, into or out of the United States. That's after more than 2,600 U.S. flights were canceled Thursday.
Flights were expected to resume later Friday in much of New England, though delays were predicted at some airports. Ticket holders were urged to check with their airlines.
Barb Plooster had planned to fly Friday from Erie, Pennsylvania, to Grand Rapids, Michigan, but her flight was canceled. She told CNN affiliate WICU that she was on the phone with United Airlines for five hours trying to find a way to get home but has concluded that she will have to wait until Monday. "We got a warm place to stay, get to visit the kids, the grandkids, so it's OK," she said.
Here's a breakdown of what to expect where:
New York and Long Island
A winter storm warning was to remain in effect across the five boroughs until 1 p.m., with wind gusts dropping wind chills to as low as 15 below, the mayor's office said.
"This has been and remains a dangerous storm," newly sworn-in Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday in a prepared statement. "The best things people can do are to stay off the roads so we can clear them as fast as possible, and to check in on elderly and vulnerable neighbors who might need help this morning."
New York City had gotten nearly 10 inches of snow by the time it abated late Friday morning, de Blasio told reporters. "It's hard to drive out there," he said. "If you do not need to travel today, please stay home."
Sanitation workers were on 12-hour shifts to clear the city's 6,200 miles of roadways, he said.
Long Island will be under a blizzard warning until 1 p.m. Friday, with wind chills as low as 10 below zero and sustained winds of at least 35 mph.
Flight operations resumed late Friday morning at John F. Kennedy International Airport; they were continuing -- despite hundreds of cancellations -- at LaGuardia Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport.
Temperatures in the single digits were predicted for Saturday morning.
New York City public schools were closed Friday.
Upstate, the capital city of Albany could get buried under 14 inches of snow, with wind chills of 15 to 25 below zero, the National Weather Service said.
The weather had its fans. In Rochester, New York, CNN iReporter Blake Sampson, 29, took a picture from his apartment window. "I grew up in Minnesota, so I'm used to it," he said. "I like how quiet things get when there is a fresh blanket of snow."
Massachusetts
That blanket covered Boston, which expected to see 10 to 18 inches of snow and temperatures as low as 6 degrees below zero by Friday night.
But limited flights were continuing into and out of Boston's Logan Airport.
The state's emergency management agency predicted up to 2 feet of snow on parts of the North Shore, South Shore and Cape Cod.
Students in scores of school districts were told to stay home Friday.
"I guess Mother Nature wanted to give me one more gift," Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said Thursday, one of his last days in the office he has held since 1993.
Blizzard warnings were in effect for parts of nearby Essex and Plymouth counties -- including the communities of Gloucester, Brockton and Plymouth -- as well as Cape Cod.
The state warned that midday high tides could produce "significant flooding" along the coast. The towns of Scituate and Duxbury requested voluntary evacuations of certain low-lying areas.
Connecticut and Delaware
Wind chills in parts of Connecticut were expected to range from -5 to -20 degrees Friday, and the National Weather Service issued winter storm warnings for most of the state through Friday morning.
Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy urged residents to take it slow and give themselves extra time for their commutes Friday. He said he expects delays but not cancellations in public transit.
Delaware said state offices were closed for all but "essential employees."
Chicago and points beyond
In the Windy City, wind chills Friday will creep down to minus 12, with more snow possible over the weekend.
The arctic blast was expected to be the coldest in 17 years, with temperatures predicted to drop below zero Sunday evening and not return to positive digits until Wednesday.
Though snow in Chicago in the winter is a common event, it "can still wreak havoc on daily routines," city emergency director Gary Schenkel said.
Next week could be no better for some U.S. residents.
A new shot of colder air will start to move into the northern Midwest by Saturday and will dive south Monday and Tuesday, carrying zero-degree cold as far south as Nashville. "That's the coldest air we've seen that far south in several years," CNN meteorologist Dave Hennen said.
The cold air will kick off a new storm Sunday into Monday that could affect a number of NFL playoff games this weekend. In Wisconsin, the Green Bay Packers will give a cold welcome to the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, when temperatures could bottom out at -17.
The U.S. weather had international implications, too: All meetings were canceled Friday at the United Nations headquarters complex on New York's East Side.
Highways buckled in Illinois and Wisconsin, water use was cut back in Indiana and those who had power in the mid-Atlantic were urged to conserve it, but the heat gripping much of the country was only expected to worsen Saturday.
Temperatures of more than 100 degrees were forecast in Philadelphia, authorities warned of excessive heat in the Midwest and the power outages surpassed a week in the mid-Atlantic, where extreme heat was expected into the weekend.
A major storm in the area last week left behind damage, which combined with the high demand for power to stress the electrical system's capabilities, a Washington-area utility said.
Hundreds of thousands remained without power Friday night in the Appalachians and mid-Atlantic, mostly in West Virginia.
Tens of thousands were still without power in the Midwest as well after storms there this week. Utilities hoped to restore service over the weekend in Michigan, where temperatures were forecast in the 90s.
The heat was blamed for at least 23 deaths.
Nine people in Maryland have died of heat-related causes in recent days, the state said. Authorities in Chicago said heat was a factor in six deaths there, mostly among older people.
Three deaths in Wisconsin and two in Tennessee were also reported to be heat-related.
In Ohio, a man in his 70s and two women -- one in her late 60s, the other in her 80s -- were found dead this week, said Dr. Jeff Lee, a deputy county coroner in the central part of the state.
He said all three were suffering from heart disease but died from stress caused by high temperatures in their houses.
Temperatures inside were stifling, recorded in the 90s in two cases, with windows shut and no ventilation. The houses lacked electricity because of recent power outages.
"If they had gotten cooling, we would have expected them to survive," he said.
Record temperatures were set Friday in the Indiana cities of Indianapolis, South Bend and Fort Wayne, where temperatures could reach 106 degrees but feel more like 114.
In central Arkansas, Russellville reached 106 degrees, breaking a record set in 1964.
Relief was on the way in the form of a cold front as the weekend ends, but forecasters expected it to bring severe weather, too.
The rain should help dry spells in many places.
Much of Arkansas is enduring brown grass and seeing trees lose their green, and farmers in Ohio are growing concerned about the dry conditions, considered among the worst of the past decade.
That’s how Carolyn Farmer, 47, of Charlotte, describes what it has been like sleeping without air conditioning in recent weeks, as temperatures bounced between 90 and 100.
“It’s so hot, the mattress sticks to you,” Farmer said.
“I have a fan, but it just blows the hot air. You don’t sleep. You just stay up all night drinking water so you don’t dehydrate.”
On Friday – when the temperature hit 97 – Farmer was first in line as Crisis Assistance Ministry’s Free Furniture Bank began giving out nearly 1,000 air conditioners donated by Charlotte-based Electrolux.
It was one example of how charities and businesses are reaching out to help vulnerable people stay cool in this dangerously hot stretch of summer.
The heat wave is expected to continue with temperatures at or near 100 degrees Saturday and Sunday. The heat index likely will approach 105 degrees daily along and southeast of Interstate 85, forecasters say.
Electrolux officials said their gift comes in direct response to the heat.
Mayaanne Mays, 42, was among those who came for a free air conditioner. She has epilepsy and said she has been without air conditioning for more than a year. As the heat has worsened, so have her seizures, she said.
Mays didn’t have transportation and intended to carry the 45-pound appliance home on her lap via a city bus.
An Electrolux employee offered to give her a ride instead, and she accepted.
“This is going to change my life,” Mays said. “It’s 95 degrees in my house in the middle of the night. I have spent a lot of time at neighbors’ houses, just to stay cool.”
Antoinette Davis, who is also disabled, said she has been without air conditioning all year and has taken to occasionally sticking her head in the refrigerator, just to breathe the cool air.
The 48-year-old said the heat has made her dizzy at times and even blurred her vision.
“I would go to a park and sit under a tree, because it was actually cooler than my house,” she said.
The heat has also prompted the Red Cross to open a cooling station for the second weekend in a row at uptown’s Hal Marshal Annex, and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Senior Centers has issued a plea for donated fans after exhausting its supply of 700 in a record four weeks.
Crisis Assistance Ministry is also seeing an increase in people needing help paying utility bills, including those who lived through the spring without electricity, but now find the heat unbearable.
Tovi Lynn Martin of Crisis Assistance likens it to “camping out in your house.” The agency sees an average of 200 people a day.
“With no power and no water, there comes a point when people are jeopardizing their health,” Martin said.
Red Cross officials said it’s the same concern that prompted the opening of a cooling center at 618 N. College St. this weekend. The center attracted 80 to 150 people last weekend, including the elderly, disabled and homeless.
“When temperatures get in the triple digits, it’s necessary for people to get out of the heat and some simply have no place else to go,” said Kate Meier of the Red Cross.
The Crisis Assistance Free Furniture Bank provides donated furniture to low-income families via referrals. Carol Hardison, executive director of Crisis Assistance, noted appliances are in short supply, making the Electrolux gift much needed.
Caryn Klebba of Electrolux said the giveaway, valued at $140,000, marks a first for the company, which has about 700 employees in Charlotte.
Klebba said the company contacted Crisis Assistance because the agency has the capability of screening recipients quickly.
Carolyn Farmer said she didn’t believe it at first when she heard of the offer.
“I’m going to cook my first meal in a long time tonight, thanks to God and Electrolux,” she said. “It’s been too hot to cook, and I’ve been eating cold cuts too long.”
People in a huge swath of the United States are being urged to seek out shelters as needed on Sunday as a historic heat wave continues to bring sizzling temperatures -- including to some who have lost power.
Extreme heat is the leading cause of weather-related deaths in the United States.
Twenty states were either partially or entirely under excessive heat warnings or heat advisories on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.
Temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit were expected in much of the Southeast.
New York City was among the sites in the Northeast facing heat advisories.
The National Weather Service said the advisory would be in effect from noon until 7 p.m. ET for the city, with temperatures expected in the mid-90s. When combined with humidity, it could feel like 100 degrees.
Over the past week, nearly 1600 high temperatures have been broken -- including 140 all-time highs, according to the National Climatic Data Center. Statistics for Saturday, when more records were broken, were not yet available.
Meanwhile, a derecho -- or massive storm -- that moved across the Ohio Valley to the Northeast on Friday left 12 people dead and millions without electricity.
Some residents in the affected areas, particularly between Chicago and Washington, were likely to see high temperatures in the 90s or even 100 on Sunday, said CNN Meterologist Sarah Dillingham. "Even with areas seeing temperatures in the 80s to low 90s, no air conditioning will still pose a major threat."
"Residents who have no air conditioning are urged to find local cooling shelters or other air conditioned establishments to keep cool. It is imperative people do anything they can to try and beat the heat."
Cities throughout the affected regions opened cooling shelters and sites offering water.
"I'm very concerned with the problems created by the combination of power outages and severe heat," said Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who said it could take up to a week to get the power back up to everybody in the state.
Kasich also called out the Ohio National Guard to check on and help the state's most vulnerable, primarily the elderly and the ill.
While crews worked around the clock to restore power, hundreds of thousands of customers remained without electricity on Sunday.
FirstEnergy said four of its utility companies combined still had well over 300,000 customers without power Saturday night. AEP Ohio said it had more than 500,000 customers without power Saturday night.
BGE said Sunday morning it had more than 300,000 customers in Maryland still without power.
The deaths from Friday's storm stretched from Ohio to New Jersey. Most were the result of downed trees and power lines, according to officials.
The destruction prompted state of emergency declarations by governors of Maryland, Ohio, West Virginia and Virginia.
"This is not a one-day situation; it is a multiday challenge," said Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, who called it the largest power outage unrelated to a hurricane in the state's history.
In West Virginia, power outages forced the closure of a large number of gas stations after pumps were rendered inoperable.
Brian Duckworth waited in line for gas for nearly two hours in Vienna, along the West-Virginia-Ohio border.
"I wouldn't even be here because I have plenty of gas in my truck," Duckworth told CNN affiliate WTAP. "But I have to get gas for my generators and some backup gas."
The storm also affected Amtrak service, including shutting down service between Washington and Philadelphia on Saturday.
Those most inconvenienced were aboard a train that ended up grinding to a halt Friday night in Prince, West Virginia, after trees blocked tracks both in front of and behind it, Amtrak spokesman Steve Kulm said.
By late Saturday night, the 232 passengers -- who stayed aboard the Chicago-bound train, which had air conditioning and food -- had been taken off and put on buses so they could reach their final destinations, according to Kulm.
The storm's deaths included six in Virginia and two children in New Jersey, cousins who huddled with their families in a tent in Parvin State Park when strong winds felled a pine tree, crushing them.
Their relatives all survived relatively unscathed, said Larry Ragonese, a spokesman for New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection.
In Washington, a couple was electrocuted after they went outside to check on downed power lines. The husband was killed while the wife -- who is in critical condition at a local hospital with burns -- is expected to survive, said police spokesman Araz Alali.
Emergency rooms in Prince George's County, Maryland, filled up over the weekend by people looking to escape the heat, said Fran Phillips, deputy secretary for the state's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
She noted that libraries and community centers across the state would stay open late to act as cooling centers.
Even in places where power was not disrupted, people with no air conditioning were advised to spend the day in a library, a cooling center or some other such place to avoid heat exhaustion.
In Atlanta, where temperatures hit a record-breaking 106 degrees on Saturday and were projected to hit 103 degrees on Sunday, cooling centers were ordered open across the city.
Welcome to the BLACK POLITICAL BUZZ Blog. (Established 2008)
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Unless I receive a personal Request to do so and I have Professionally Confirmed that the Third Party Organization or Charity is indeed a Legitimate Entity.
NOTE: Anyone who chooses to give to any Third Party Organization NOT Endorsed by BLACK POLITICAL BUZZ is doing so at his or her own risk.
BLACK POLITICAL BUZZ does NOT Discriminate against Politicians, Political Candidates, Organizations or Charities based on Race, Color, Nationality, Ethnicity, Gender, Sexual Orientation, Religion, Faith, Disability, Political Affiliation, Creed, Education, Social Status, Age.
This disclaimer applies to ANY and All requests for Donations on this Blog. Thanks for understanding. Again No Personal Offense intended.
For Story Tips….Corrections…….. or Requests for Endorsements:
Please contact me via e-mail: blackpoliticalbuzz@gmail.com
or via my Facebook page: facebook.com/blackpoliticalbuzz
Thanks for stopping by
God Bless
Laurel @BLACK POLITICAL BUZZ
LINKS: POLITICAL PERSPECTIVE & INFORMATIONAL SITES
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