At least there’s a good reason to play lumberjacker for a bit 
silver linings and all that.
Be well mate.
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Sorry to hear Chris. We caught the outer eastern edge and have lots of trees down in our neighborhood, including the loss of a live oak on the main drive 
. But no flooding thankfully. We have a live oak in our front yard and one of the long branches extends over the front of our house. I got home late Thursday night to find my wife and 3 daughters all sleeping on the sofa on the first floor. They were afraid of the tree falling. Smart that. I need to have it cut back. Yard clean up today.
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That looks… extreme!
Stay safe, hope everyone gets through it OK (including the furnace 
)
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Hope everything gets back to ‘normal’ soon. I have never felt quite so powerless as when Mother Nature has thrown stuff like that my way.
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Thanks everyone. Still no power. Went back to the ex’s house yesterday to take the generator back over to the “middle” house to dewater the basement again. I am grateful it is a duel fuel generator. It can run off internal gas or propane. It is super heavy though so I just mounted it to my trailer tray…that made it easier to lift… and I didn’t need to take it off the tray to run it at the other house. I have it mounted sideways so the hot exhaust from the generator won’t scorch my paint.
No estimate on when power will be restored. No doubt all of Western North Carolina is taxing the capacity of utility companies. For all the hassle I’m grateful that I’m not in the disaster that is the mountains of the Carolinas. I think the toll of this will be exceptional in terms of lives and money. I didn’t live here when hurricane Hugo came through…but according to many it seems reminiscent.
Our helicopters have been flying into the mountains and bringing people out. I’ve been on the night shift and have felt paralyzed because we can’t fly into Asheville at night since the tower is closed and there is no weather reporting facility. During the day you can try to get in VFR…but if there is any kind of weather at all Asheville is no place to be dipping around.
I’ve been taking ice from my ex’s house dince she has the generator and is running her freezer and refrigerator…trying to keep my freezer cool enough. I think the refrigerator contents are toast by now though… I will have to throw all of that stuff away. Looking forward to having power and connectivity soon. The Internet runs at about the speed of a 300 baud modem on my phone right now. I wish there were a news site that just gave news in text format without graphics… 
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Hang in there!
Shall we write a Mudspike news report (text only) for you?
Stay safe and take care of yourself too!
Stay safe Chris. I hope they get the power restored soon.
Here you go:
Not sure if that helps with local news a lot.
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Still no power., At least the nights are cool…temps down to the mid 60s so with the windows open sleeping is comfortable. Power is starting to come on in surrounding communities as the linemen work. Our estimate is sometime between now and Oct 5…so who knows. Power must be getting to more cell towers…either that or more people are getting back on WiFi because cellular data connectivity is improving slightly. I still can’t load pages with tons of graphics or advertisements. Yesterday I was trying to put a trimmer head back together after disassembling it and I can’t tell you how hopeless I felt when YouTube wouldn’t load to show me how to do it… Trial and error for the win!
One neat thing is that with no light pollution the stars are amazing at night…!
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Oh I hate walmart this time of year. This specifically being one of the reasons.
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Nice shot Chris. You captured Orion, Taurus, the Plaides (7 sisters) and Jupiter in that shot. I hope you get power back soon even though the stars are better without it.
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I was actually in Flat Rock, just south of Asheville, for work last weekend.
Knowing that most of the areas I was visiting and driving through are currently under water or destroyed is heartbreaking.
There’s a lot of analysis and real time reporting still going on, but that part of Appalachia isn’t going to ever be the same.
@BeachAV8R if you need anything let me know- we’re all sharing information state wide.
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Thank you @Navynuke99 … I’m good. Got a roof and supplies and food are the next town over. Crazy how just 15 or 20 miles mark the delineation between normalcy and inconveninece and another 30 miles to total disaster. Its mind blowing…
I was making a steak that was threatening to spoil in my freezer…and building a windsurfing gear rack…and as I sat down to eat it…my power came on…!
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It’s been insane to follow- I’ve seen estimates of maybe roughly 360 electrical substations destroyed, which honestly makes sense - geography means there’s more need all over the western part of the state.
I’ll be checking in with friends in Team Rubicon later in the week who are deploying, and I’ve got an ex in CalFire in San Diego who I know is coordinating the fire units that drove from there Sunday (yes, San Diego fire rescue sent a convoy to NC/TN).
I’ll be further west maybe next week or the week after- keep me posted if your situation changes.
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Power! Nice! And just in time to enjoy a good steak 
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I’m over the moon i saw Colin mcraes cars. Had tears in my eyes. Seeing 5 T50s didnt even come close
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That version of the Subaru is one of my all time favourite cars.
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Same here. Stunning motor.
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