Since OT isn’t open, and this will probably be mostly horse-related anyway, I thought I’d start a thread here about Florence. She’s not welcome, but a direct strike to the east coast is looking probable. Time to prepare.
Literally asking for a friend who just relocated near Pinehurst,NC.
8 horses with a 2-stall barn, so for now mostly field-kept.
Is this inland area at risk for damage?
Would horses be okay in her pine tree-lined field?
I am assuming she is aware, but just in case, I’ll get in touch - unless I’m fretting about nothing.
During H. Irma, I only lost 1 med. size pine tree outside the pastures. the big ones were unscathed w/ 110 mph winds.
Interestingly, my horses had choice of covered shelters but choose to hang out in a low, low area w/ no trees around.
They were fine. We’re inland also by 50 miles.
My horse is about 20 miles inland and can be put in a barn that survived Hurricane Hugo, so I think he should be good. Currently one strand of the spaghetti diagram is going pretty much through my house. We are keeping an eye on it and have inland hotel reservations if we need them. I am about 4 miles from the ocean, so flooding isn’t a big issue where I live (and is even less of an issue where my horse is). My house is three years old, has roof strapping, a reinforced garage door, and hurricane strength windows. My biggest worry is an airborne missile hitting one of the windows, especially the upper ones, and losing the roof in spite of the strapping. I am hoping my husband will be willing to board up the upstairs windows (I can’t do it due to disability). There’s only two windows up there (attic and bonus room), so we’re not talking a lot. He has a good ladder and used to paint houses for a living, and do other construction stuff that required scary ladder stuff.
Rebecca
I highly suggest she follow the Facebook page of the National Weather Station - Raleigh (https://www.facebook.com/NWSRaleigh/). Lots of good information and updates every 3 hours for incoming weather events. Slide shows, videos, graphics, etc. Very good resource and covers that area as well.
I am outside of Apex, NC, about 40 minutes from Pinehurst/Southern Pines. Closer to Raleigh. Irma was a complete non-event here. Matthew was wet, but I know that Fayetteville (closer to Pinehurst) and surrounding areas struggled with flooding. Matthew was A LOT of water.
Everyone has their own thoughts on in vs. out. I will make the call as it gets closer, too soon for me to tell. I think the common theme is a breakaway halter, a fly mask and tags ties into the mane or tail for ID. If she chooses to leave the horses out, my main concern would be losing a tree on a fence line and having loose horses.
Typically the NC State fairgrounds (an hour-ish from her?) is open for stabling (and I think is on high-ish ground). I have not heard what the Carolina Horse Park has decided, but that is much closer for her if she decides she NEEDS stalls.
Just my two-cents.
Editing:
From what I can see from horse friends who are local on Facebook.
The NC State Fairgrounds IS NOT taking any horses for evac.
Carolina Horse Park IS taking horses: Call the CHP office at 910-875-2074 weekdays between 9 am - 4 pm and call 910-992-0585 after hours.
Pinehurst Harness Track IS taking horses, but it may be limited: contact Track Superintendent Ray Skellington at 910-420-1628 or rskellington@vopnc.org
Both CHP and PHT are advising that they are still in the direct track for the storm and may not be the best spot to evacuate to. Use your best judgement folks!
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The American Weather forums are kind of fun to read. I think AB refered us to it a couple of years ago.
They get pretty technical which I find myself just skimming over, but you get the gist as you read. If you go there I would go to the last page and maybe back up 3-5 pages on the Florence thread.
This morning someone posted a map of predicted rain fall and it looked like it could be up to a foot of rain in central/SW VA but those of us closer to the coast 7-8 inches. It looked like WEG would only get about 3" (on that map). She is 5 days away, so it’s really hard to say even for those posters and some of them are meteorologists. I got the feeling that the winds would not be so bad west of I95.
You can lurk there.
I’m worried about pine trees, too, well, on my house, but we haven’t had the rains that central VA and north of there have had.
In reading the weather forums, if I lived almost anywhere in NC I would be very worried. Many are saying the event is not going to be the hurricane but the enormous amounts of rain the storm could dump - 20 inches and up and it covers much of the state. Please consider NOW what you will do if this storm heads your way with that amount of rainfall. Here is a blog I was reading earlier: http://www.mikesmithenterprisesblog.com/2018/09/some-straight-talk-about-flood.html
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Here’s the link to the National Hurricane Center. Scroll down to the hurricane name, and then click on the Warning Cones/Static Images to see their latest. However, there are other models, and it’s still hard to say exactly what will happen. To see a better predictor, I watch the Weather Channel for the morning show with Jim Cantore, and wait until he disappears from the show, and you know he’s on the move. Then I look at the weather channel FB or the Where is Jim Cantore FB page to see where he’s been sighted.
Here’s the link to the National Hurricane Center. Scroll down to the hurricane name, and then click on the Warning Cones/Static Images to see their latest. However, there are other models, and it’s still hard to say exactly what will happen. To see a better predictor, I watch the Weather Channel for the morning show with Jim Cantore, and wait until he disappears from the show, and you know he’s on the move. Then I look at the weather channel FB or the Where is Jim Cantore FB page to see where he’s been sighted.
Here’s the link to the National Hurricane Center. Scroll down to the hurricane name, and then click on the Warning Cones/Static Images to see their latest. However, there are other models, and it’s still hard to say exactly what will happen. To see a better predictor, I watch the Weather Channel for the morning show with Jim Cantore, and wait until he disappears from the show, and you know he’s on the move. Then I look at the weather channel FB or the Where is Jim Cantore FB page to see where he’s been sighted.
Hurricane Helene doesn’t look like it will come near North America at all, and Isaac supposedly will go directly west above South America, so unless it bends a lot to the north will hit Central America. Of course, who can really know what a hurricane will do.
My family has been through several hurricanes. First of all, get as far inland as possible. My last house was hit by a tornado which came from the north east at a diagonal. It took off the roof, hit my neighbors house and flipped the porch on top of their house, then it hit the next neighbors brand new barn. The barn was completely demolished.
My barn it completely missed and had no damage.
The best thing you can do is evacuate early and get out. Georgia has a nice show grounds with CBS concrete stalls.
With Irma, i planned on heading to the Georgia fairgrounds and making two trips. Lucky it did not hit near me and i didn’t need to leave. Everyone ended up evacuating to my house.
I live in Florida and Irma did a lot of damage in my area. All of the horses were tagged and left out in a very large pasture (20+ acres). The eye actually passed right over my house. Very eerie as everything gets super quiet until the backside of the storm comes. We were out of power for 5 days. It was miserable. One thing we did was fill up extra troughs of water. We had to dip into them and bring water for horses that were stalled after the storm. We needed that extra water as the well would obviously not work until we got power restored. We also had a tornado go through our town which destroyed a lot of local businesses and homes.
Advice, get out earlier than later. Otherwise the roads will be packed, and you don’t want to get stuck in the storm, especially with horses in a trailer! There is a risk for tornados, high winds, and especially flooding if the storm stalls out over you.
I am thinking and praying for everyone in the path of this storm.
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I also want to add, fill up as much gas as you can! Our gas stations were swamped and ran out of gas quickly. And you can’t get gas if the power is out. We filled our vehicles and every gas container we could find.
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If anyone is thinking about evacuating horses, FENCE in Tryon has opened up stalls. They are also looking for volunteers to help with the incoming horses:
“As our coastal equestrians prepare for a possible hit from the disturbance in the Atlantic Ocean, FENCE is opening up our stalls for evacuees free of charge. With over 100 stalls booked already I am asking the community to open their arms and help us by volunteering your time. Please email admin@fence.org or call the office 828-859-9021 if you are available. For now we are in a holding pattern but we want to be prepared. Thank you, Tracie”
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if you have to evacuate take a copy of your homeowners policy (as well as any other important documents) a home owners policy will be proof of ownership for any FEMA claim
also note that most all generator sales before a hurricane are fail sells that can not be returned
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I didn’t know this about generators! Thanks for the info!
What is a “fail sell?”
make that a final
Soooo… I’m a born and raised midwest inlander traveling from Kentucky to Tilghman Island, MD for a wedding this weekend, which appears to be in Chesapeake Bay… but further north, much closer to DC than the entrance to the Bay (I’m not even sure if it is still Chesapeake Bay up there?)…
Anyway, we have zero idea what we are heading into or what resources to use to gain a clue so many thanks for the links. This map is a little concerning… is anyone in the northern Bay area? Are you generally well-protected in there? Should we be considering canceling this trip? It’s my best friend’s wedding so that would be a last resort, but I truly have no idea what to expect here… the event IS on an island after all :eek:
Thank you coastal COTHers!
