Off-Topic Forum

I really need a bit of time to catch up on everything happening on this site the past 2 days! While I didn't get hit with a tornado, they were VERY close to home. I was without power for all of Sunday evening/night and a large portion of Monday. I'm hoping the power is back on for good now. I just need some time to catch up on all of the PM's, transactions, and offers. PLZ give me some time to get back to you if you sent anything my way.

There was so much around the house that I had planned on doing on Sunday that just didn't happen due to the weather! While I'm thankful that the tornadoes stayed a few miles away, the loss of power shut down most of my household activities. I still need to get those done, as well as going to work, so that limits my time here for the next couple of days. Top of the list on here is a trade that was agreed to on Saturday and was supposed to ship Monday. With no power, I didn't want to package the cards and couldn't weigh the package or print a shipping label. He's been contacted with an updated plan. A few more trade offers came in while I had no power, so I will have to get to them when I can. Hopefully, it will be in the next couple of days.

There is major damage just a few miles west and southwest of my house. I'd love to help out, but I just don't have time or money to do so. Plus, my neighbor just died on 4/07 and I've been trying to help console his family for the past week and then this storm comes almost exactly (time-wise) 8 days after his death. It's been rough on this block for the past week or so. My neighbor was a single man with no spouse and I don't think he had any children. He was also a Vietnam veteran and a recipient of a Purple Heart, but the worst is that his mother lives next door to him and has outlived her son. She lives in the house on the other side of his house from me. I still feel so bad for her. I have recently found out that his sister will move into the house, so at least another family member will occupy the house. A tough week on this country block, but that's nothing compared to what happened in eastern Greensboro on Sunday. Anyone that can help those affected by the tornadoes, please do so! I don't have actual links, but I know the Red Cross is helping those affected. I'm sure the Salvation Army and NC Baptists are also working to help.

That is a highly populated area of the city and 3 elementary schools were destroyed or damaged so much that they can't be used for the rest of the school year. Most of the area isn't expected to have power until the end of the week. Guilford County School System has closed all schools until further notice. Plans are in place for students of the 3 Elementary Schools that were destroyed or severely damaged to go to other schools for the rest of the school year. But there is still no known time for when any of the schools will re-open, even the undamaged ones. I can't remember the last time that a tornado hit such a highly-populated area of NC. The last 2 that come to mind would be Sanford, NC (small city, but big tornado) a few years ago and then Charlotte getting hit with tornadoes from Hurricane Hugo in 1989. I saw the Hugo damage with my own eyes when I was 10 or 11 and it was unbelieveable. The Sanford tornado was part of a Weather Channel program the year after it happened.

Enough rambling now. If you have the means in any way to help the survivors of the Greensboro, NC tornadoes (as well as Columbia, SC - Reidsville, NC - Danville, VA), please do so. They really need some help. Even just some water to drink or some food they don't need to cook would be a big help to anyone in those areas!

Scary stuff. Glad you are OK. I hadn't heard much about it because I've had NBA and Hockey stuff on pretty much 24/7. I will shoot a message to the Scott family and hope they came through OK. Kind of unusual to have tornados like that so far east, I think.

I saw videos of these storms and their damage on the nightly news up here in CT. Scary stuff....we've had our share of these storms, but thankfully not on that level. Take care of yourself and do what you need to do. Life comes first.

Adam, as always, glad to hear you're okay. People are always the more important aspect in any of these situations.

I can't imagine anyone on here not being understanding about a package going out a few days late because of something like this.

I live one town over from Greensboro, with family and friends in some of the hardest hit areas including Columbia SC, Greensboro NC, Reidsville NC, and Danville VA. All are safe. The damage is extensive, but fortunately the human loss was minimal. Some families lost everything they own, and collections have started amongst the locals to donate clothing and personal necessities to these families. It will take a long time to  physically rebuild the lives of those most affected. But the psychological effects may last forever.

We had a tornado watch on sunday here in Lancaster, SC. Heard one touched down in nearby Rock HIll. Been really windy past few days.

Thanks for the replies everyone!

Most schools re-opened in Guilford County Wednesday morning. The students of the 3 damaged schools won't report to their new schools until Monday the 23rd. That is mostly b/c they can't get buses into the areas to pick up the students. Many roads are still closed b/c they are impassable or have no power for traffic lights and crosswalks. Plus, most of the vehicles that were in the area were destroyed. No real means of transportation in a large area still. Even public transportation can't get into those areas right now. Thankfully, no more deaths have been attributed to the storm (so it's still at 1), but a family is in the hospital in critical condition due to carbon monoxide poisoning. Their generator somehow vented the gas into the house. The local Fox TV station (with help from the Salvation Army) had a phone drive for 13 hours on Wednesday for people to make donations. I saw on the news tonight that many of the local high school sports teams had donation bins outside of events (mostly soccer and baseball/softball) for people to drop off items needed in the affected areas. That was nice to see.

I did finally find out why my power was out for so long and it was WAY closer than I realized. A pole right across the street (literally about 80 feet or 25 meters away from my front door) was snapped. Power lines run from that pole back to the house that sits way back from the road. A tree came down on the lines to that house and pulled that pole with it. My lines run from the pole just before that one and the nearest transformer is several poles before that. So they had to shut down power on this end of the road Monday afternoon to make permanent repairs. They really should bury the power lines right here. There are lots of trees around the lines to my house, the house across the street and the house behind me. One tree down could take out power to one, two, or all three houses without affecting anyone else on this road. There's only one other section on the block that's in a heavily wooded area, but it would take out power to many houses. BTW, this is a country block so it's about 1.5 miles long (about 1km) between the end of the road and the next stop sign.

I have now caught up on most stuff outside of this site that needed my attention. Some stuff hasn't been done b/c I only have time to do them on the weekend. I will get both of my accepted trades mailed on Friday. Anyone who's sent a proposal in the past week or so will just have to wait for me to catch up more to get to them.

I haven't heard about one in Rock Hill, but I wouldn't be surprised. That's right along the line that the cell that kept dropping tornadoes took. My local weatherman plotted the exact storm in the whole line of storms as it moved to the north-northeast. Then he put an arrow on it pointing in that direction. Every single tornado report in SC, NC, VA fell within a few miles of that arrow.

The tornado in Greensboro was given an EF2 rating by the NWS at 135 MPH (just 3 MPH short of EF3 level) and lasted just over 4 miles on the ground. The one near Reidsville was given an EF1 at 110 MPH, but lasted over 17 miles on the ground. Luckily, Rockingham County is much more rural than Guilford County or that length of time on the ground would have certainly added to the deaths and devastation.

It's been really windy here all month so far! It's a bit surprising how continuous the windy days have lasted. That's part of the reason for the crazy up and down weather in April. If it's coming from the south or east, it's a warm wind and heats us up. If it's coming from the west or north, it cools us down a lot.

Doc Floyd wrote:

We had a tornado watch on sunday here in Lancaster, SC. Heard one touched down in nearby Rock HIll. Been really windy past few days.

Billy, tornadoes are not at all uncommon in NC. But really strong ones are pretty rare. Most tornadoes here are EF0 or EF1 and short-lived. Disregarding tropical systems, tornadoes are pretty common in the spring and again in the fall. It's mostly due to weather fronts coming in that are strong enough to make it over the mountains or that run northward along an east-moving front and come from more southern states. The latter was the exact condition for the tornadoes on Sunday. The strongest parts of the front were going around the mountains by coming in from the southwest. The monster tornado that hit Tuscaloosa, AL a few years ago was the same system that dropped the big tornado in Sanford, NC two days later. Sanford is a few dozen miles south of Raleigh (for those wondering).