News:

The AARoads Wiki is live! Come check it out!

Main Menu

Hurricane Florence - Road Closures

Started by edwaleni, September 12, 2018, 01:54:20 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

1995hoo

Quote from: 02 Park Ave on September 19, 2018, 10:38:24 PM
What is the status of the I-95 between Richmond ans Savannah?

The article LM117 linked ends with the following, which is noteworthy enough to pull out separately:

QuoteI-95 in South Carolina reopened at 4 p.m. Friday, allowing North Carolina to provide a shorter detour for people traveling through the state. Drivers from Virginia now will be directed to use U.S. 64 West (Exit 138) to I-440 West to I-40 West to U.S. 1 South to U.S. 15/501 in Aberdeen to U.S. 74 back to I-95 in Robeson County.
"You know, you never have a guaranteed spot until you have a spot guaranteed."
—Olaf Kolzig, as quoted in the Washington Times on March 28, 2003,
commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

"That sounded stupid, didn't it?"
—Kolzig, to the same reporter a few seconds later.


bob7374

Latest news from NCDOT:
Saturday, 9/22/18 12 noon update
Motorists may now access Wilmington
From the south via US 17
From the north via I-40 east to NC 24 east (Exit 373) to US 17 south
From Fayetteville via NC 87 to US 701 south to NC 211

Jacksonville:  via I-40 to NC 24 (Exit 373)

I-95 remains closed from US 64 (Exit 138) to South Carolina
I-40 remains closed from NC 41 (Exit 385) to Wilmington

D-Dey65

#52
Quote from: LM117 on September 21, 2018, 05:01:36 PM
NCDOT says that parts of I-40 and I-95 will remain closed for at least another week.

https://www.wral.com/ncdot-stay-away-from-wilmington-/17860288/

This site gives the latest info on road closures in NC:

https://tims.ncdot.gov/tims/
I'm not going until the flooding is all gone. Because I wanted pictures of the southbound Lumberton truck weigh station on I-95 (among others), and I don't think I'll get any good shots going south.


Then again, I ususally get to that part of the Carolinas on the first legs of my road trips in the afternoon, so maybe I'd be better off waiting until the second leg of the return trip going south. The two weigh stations in Halifax County, not to mention the one north of Carson, Virginia are a different story.


Oh, and I'm dying to get shots of Four Oaks, especially the old on and off-ramps at Hockaday Mill Road.




LM117

#53
I-95 in NC has reopened.

https://www.ncdot.gov/news/press-releases/Pages/2018/2018-09-23-interstate-95-reopens.aspx

The section of I-40 that Bob posted above still remains closed, however.
“I don’t know whether to wind my ass or scratch my watch!” - Jim Cornette

paulthemapguy

Quote from: Beltway on September 19, 2018, 09:08:20 PM
There are mountains of published evidence that floods and hurricanes recently are no more prevalent or intense than they have been over the last 100 years.  Stop spending so much time watching CNN and MSNBC and expand from your static worldview.

We really do live in a hilarious time if people are pinning CNN as a left-wing institution.

Here's how climate change is connected to hurricanes in general--

Hurricanes require a few ingredients to form, but the most important ingredient that will make or break tropical storm development is the temperature of the ocean water in the formation area.  Tropical storms and hurricanes generally do not form in waters colder than 80°F.  As the Earth heats up, the region of our world's oceans where the water temperature exceeds 80 degrees will expand.  Hurricanes form over warm water, and a warmer Earth means a larger expanse of warm water.  Take a look at surface ocean water temperature anomalies this year.  The water present near Hurricane Florence's intensification is undergoing a heat wave, and if that heat wave spans multiple years, that may turn out to be a climatic change rather than a weather event.

Here's how climate change is connected to Hurricane Florence--

Hurricane Florence was one of the storm associated with the "Cape Verde season," a portion of the hurricane season when a great number storms strengthen out of "waves," storms blowing westward off of the Cape Verde Islands of Africa.  Take a look at T.D. Kirk, another storm of the same ilk, as another example of a Cape Verde storm; it's running pretty much due west, toward the Lesser Antilles.  This is what typically happens with Cape Verde storms-- they usually angle toward the Greater Antilles or Lesser Antilles before turning sharply northward.  Depending on when they turn northward, they can hit the United States from the south.

Florence didn't behave like the typical Cape Verde storm, though--it moved generally WNW without picking up any winds that would turn it sharply north and northeastward, and it was somehow able to SURVIVE.  Tropical cyclones that form in the North Atlantic aren't known to move generally westward without slowing down, and Florence didn't only fail to weaken...it STRENGTHENED.  No Cape Verde hurricane has been known to drift that far northward and survive, and no category 4 hurricane has come that close to North Carolina before.  Storms of category 4 strength or higher have never made landfall on the North Carolina coast before, and Florence came very close to doing just that.  And the stronger hurricanes that have hit NC came from the warm waters of the south, not the eastern waters, which were typically too cold in past decades to strengthen a hurricane.

Long story short, we didn't know a hurricane like Florence could even be possible.  Cape Verde hurricanes don't make it that far north without that sharp turn to the northeast, and ones of that intensity NEVER make it that far north in any capacity.
Avatar is the last interesting highway I clinched.
My website! http://www.paulacrossamerica.com Now featuring all of Ohio!
My USA Shield Gallery https://flic.kr/s/aHsmHwJRZk
TM Clinches https://bit.ly/2UwRs4O

National collection status: 361/425. Only 64 route markers remain

jeffandnicole

Quote from: paulthemapguy on September 24, 2018, 09:53:41 AM
Long story short, we didn't know a hurricane like Florence could even be possible.  Cape Verde hurricanes don't make it that far north without that sharp turn to the northeast, and ones of that intensity NEVER make it that far north in any capacity.

This one was an anomaly, but when you look over the course of history anomalies happen often. The forecasting of them are even worse.  Yes, this one will go down in the book as "We predicted it would hit the Carolinas and it did", but the reality was it was quite a bit south from where originally expected it would go. Once it hit land, the predictions got even worse, with the majority of models believing it would go more towards Ohio and Indiana.

LM117

“I don’t know whether to wind my ass or scratch my watch!” - Jim Cornette

D-Dey65

Evidently, Lumberton is having problems again.

https://tims.ncdot.gov/tims/RegionSummary.aspx?co=78&Page=Weather

QuoteRobeson County experiencing severe flooding. I-95 & I-74 are closed through Robeson County. Expect downed trees and debris on the secondary roadways as well as extensive flooding and roadway damage. Travel is not advised.

:angry:


LM117

“I don’t know whether to wind my ass or scratch my watch!” - Jim Cornette

US 89

#59
Quote from: paulthemapguy on September 24, 2018, 09:53:41 AM
Florence didn't behave like the typical Cape Verde storm, though--it moved generally WNW without picking up any winds that would turn it sharply north and northeastward, and it was somehow able to SURVIVE.  Tropical cyclones that form in the North Atlantic aren't known to move generally westward without slowing down, and Florence didn't only fail to weaken...it STRENGTHENED.  No Cape Verde hurricane has been known to drift that far northward and survive, and no category 4 hurricane has come that close to North Carolina before.  Storms of category 4 strength or higher have never made landfall on the North Carolina coast before, and Florence came very close to doing just that.  And the stronger hurricanes that have hit NC came from the warm waters of the south, not the eastern waters, which were typically too cold in past decades to strengthen a hurricane.

Long story short, we didn't know a hurricane like Florence could even be possible.  Cape Verde hurricanes don't make it that far north without that sharp turn to the northeast, and ones of that intensity NEVER make it that far north in any capacity.

NC has been hit by a category 4 before: Hurricane Hazel in 1954. And the odd track was caused by a blocking high pressure ridge. Whether that ridge was caused by climate change is up for debate.

Current research shows that there isn't a strong link between climate change and hurricanes -- at least compared to floods, droughts, and heatwaves, for which there is a lot of evidence. The main reason for this is that while yes, climate change will increase the ocean temperature, that isn't the only factor that contributes to hurricanes. Hurricanes also need low wind shear, and there hasn't been much research about the effect of climate change on wind shear.

IIRC, the general consensus as of now (note that this may change in the future) is that climate change probably doesn't have an effect on the number of hurricanes, but it may increase the intensity of the hurricanes that do form.

Also, it’s worth noting that there is no statistical significance in one event. If we start having more hurricanes with this type of track, maybe then we can connect it to climate change. But until then, this is just one random event.

Beltway

Quote from: US 89 on September 25, 2018, 11:24:37 PM
NC has been hit by a category 4 before: Hurricane Hazel in 1954. And the odd track was caused by a blocking high pressure ridge.

That storm still packed hurricane force sustained winds in central Virginia including in Richmond.  As far as Richmond is from the ocean it is not immune to Cat 1 storms.  With the heavy tree cover in the area (as in umpteen thousands of 70+ foot tall trees) those kinds of winds would be catastrophic to trees and whatever they fell on. 

At least in a coastal area such as Brevard County, FL where I grew up, such storms are common enough that they "culled the herd" of weak trees decades ago, so at least a Cat 1 hurricane is more bearable, not that it is anything to take for granted.
http://www.roadstothefuture.com
http://www.capital-beltway.com

Baloney is a reserved word on the Internet
    (Robert Coté, 2002)

LM117

“I don’t know whether to wind my ass or scratch my watch!” - Jim Cornette



Opinions expressed here on belong solely to the poster and do not represent or reflect the opinions or beliefs of AARoads, its creators and/or associates.