Flooding and Severe Weather

 

Blairsville, high 61, low 48)

 

For at least a week, the weather forecasters were warning of an upcoming multi day severe weather threat, with a possible tornado outbreak.

Tornado’s always get my attention.

Unfortunately some didn’t take the tornado warnings seriously enough and stayed in mobile homes. There were two fatalities, one where a tree fell on a house and one where the mobile home was obliterated by the EF2 tornado.  Such a shame.  Mobile homes and Rv’s are NOT the place to be in a tornado.

We didn’t get any rain or wind during the day Monday, but as the front approached, and the tornados were popping up along the frontal boundary.  The radar showed a solid red squall line from Indiana down to the gulf coast of Florida. There was even a tornado in Crestview (our home of record).

It became apparent the first wave would come in the middle of the night.  We have a clubhouse in the Rv park, but it’s open on both ends and not much of a shelter. There is a laundry room and restrooms that would be somewhat safe, but we didn’t think they would appreciate us bringing the cats. 

We decided to break down and go to a hotel.   At least we’d be comfy and not worried about making a run to the clubhouse in the middle of the night, during a storm. We weren’t in a tornado alert yet, but they were coming in as the storm moved. As it turned out, the hotel wasn’t necessary, but that’s okay.  Better safe than sorry.  Don’t want to be the guy who goes home with the Idol. ( A reference to the Tv show Survivor)

We decided this was a good option for us, since we have animals.  We’ll probably do it again in the event of severe weather.  A little inconvenience and a few bucks is worth the peace of mind.

It rained  off and on most of the on Tuesday, and by the time it stopped, we had 5 inches of rain in our rain gauge in only a 24 hour period. 

The river behind Rivers Edge was raging and had overflowed it’s banks but had receded a lot by the time we went by.

We took a drive to check out all the flooding.  The rivers overflowed their banks and some houses were surrounded by water.   Now, maybe I see the reason they built dams in this area.

The TVA have been keeping the lakes and rivers low for the upcoming rainy season.  Now, I see why.

This is a put-put golf course that is next to the river.

There are leaves everywhere!   I imagine this will put a big damper on leaf peeping.

 

So, onto another subject.

I got the nicest e-mail from the parent of the boys I photographed and blogged about a few days ago.

If you missed that post, you can read about it HERE.

I was concerned that maybe I shouldn’t post the boys picture on the blog, since they were minors and I didn’t want them or their parents to think we were perverts.

This is the e-mail I got.   I assumed they were brothers, but maybe not.

Thank you so much for demonstrating to my son and his friends how cool this big world can be!  He is so proud of your pictures and he could not wait to share the story about meeting you two. We hope you have a phenomenal time on your travels and will continue to follow your blog. And, no, we definitely don't classify you as perverts...just genuinely good hearted people.
Wishing you both safe travels and exciting adventures~

Wasn’t that nice?     We sure enjoyed watching their kayak run over the waterfall.  It made our day, and I was happy to send them the photos I took.

The sun it out, and it looks like a beautiful day.  We’re going to clean the house, then do something fun. 

We are hoping we’ll still get to see some more fall color.  I’m sure most of the leaves we saw on Sunday have blown off, but much of the area was still mostly green, so we’re hoping it hasn’t ruined the rest of the leaf peeping season.  It will be a little to wet for a hike for a few days!