[AT] test, hurricane

charlie hill chill8 at suddenlink.net
Sat Sep 6 09:22:54 PDT 2008


I've never read that Larry.  I'll have to put it on my list.
Eastern NC was affected by that flood from VA to SC and from I-95 to roughly 
US 17.  Even I-95 and I-40 were blocked in places.  Most of the flooded 
areas were damed up by roads built since 1960 or so.  Looks like we would 
have learned the lessons of history by now.  I think they are addressing it 
now days.  In fact the section of US 17 that is being built in the next 
county north (Beaufort) is bridged over the entire Tar/Pamlico river basin. 
They built a special rig that walks it's way over the lowlands, supported on 
the columns it just built while it places the next ones in line.  Supposedly 
they are making a TV series about it for Mega Builders or one of those cable 
shows.

Charlie
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Larry Goss" <rlgoss at insightbb.com>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Saturday, September 06, 2008 11:05 AM
Subject: Re: [AT] test, hurricane


> When it comes to bulding roads, people never seem to learn, Charlie.  What 
> you have described is similar to the situation in Afghanistan that James 
> Michner describes in his novel "Caravans."  The Germans were the road 
> engineers in that case, and they left areas susceptible to flooding and 
> erosion because of paving techniques like you describe in North Carolina.
>
> Larry
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: charlie hill <chill8 at suddenlink.net>
> Date: Saturday, September 6, 2008 9:55
> Subject: Re: [AT] test, hurricane
> To: Antique tractor email discussion group <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
>
>> Hazel was in 54.  It is one of my earliest memories.
>> I had just turned 4
>> years old.  Our house was nearly new, built in 51.  It
>> is up on a hill, well
>> what we call a hill in Craven Co. NC., and is on all but the
>> north side
>> which is wooded.  I can remember lying on my parents bed
>> and listening to
>> the wind blow for what seemed like hours.  The rain was
>> blowing in between
>> the sashes on three year old double hung windows.
>> The next year  brought
>> Diane and Ione which caused the biggest flood ever seen around
>> our farm
>> until Floyd came along in '99.  All of our neighbors were
>> flooded out and
>> most of them were either in our house or in our yard along with
>> all of their
>> cars, trucks, tractors and animals.  Our house was still a
>> good 7 feet or so
>> above flood level.  When Floyd came along in 99 the flood
>> stopped 1" from
>> the wood in foundation of the house.
>>
>> The difference was not so much because of the severity of the
>> storms or the
>> amount of rain but because of NC Dept of Transportation.
>> In the years
>> between 1955 and 1999 new roads were built in eastern NC.
>> Because of the
>> terrain here many of them crossed swamp land bordering creeks
>> and rivers.
>> In those days they just filled in the swamp and only built a
>> bridge over the
>> creek.  That effectively built a dam with a spillway the
>> width of the creek
>> instead of the natural drain though the swamp that in many
>> places is
>> hundreds of feet up to miles wide.
>>
>> In the 99 flood water was rising an inch an hour  at my
>> mom's house.  Three
>> miles down stream on the creek there is a bridge for a road that
>> did not
>> exist in 55.  The water at that bridge was at road level on
>> the up steam
>> side and 3 feet below road level on the down stream side.
>> Water was running through the bridge opening (nearly 100' long)
>> like it was
>> running out of a pipe,  shooting out into the down stream area.
>>
>> They, NC DOT, know it but they don't like to talk about
>> it.  A lot of you
>> probably saw Bill Clinton visiting the historic freed slave town
>> of
>> Princeville NC that was completely wiped out in the 99
>> flood.  Princeville
>> is just up steam of the newly built Hwy 64 freeway project that
>> dams up
>> miles of low land in the Tar River basin.  There is a
>> project in the
>> planning stages to 4 lane the portion of US Hwy 17 that runs
>> through Craven
>> Co.  A new bridge will be built over the Neuse River very
>> near to the Swift
>> Creek bridge that contributed to the flood at my  moms
>> place.  In the
>> environmental impact statement for the project it requires that
>> the new
>> bridge be built above grade (on pilings) for the entire span
>> over the low
>> lands and that the old roadway blocking the river low grounds be
>> removed.
>> I know that is more information than anyone wanted but once in a
>> while I
>> have to get that off my chest.
>>
>> Charlie
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Gene Waugh Elgin, Illinois USA" <gwaugh at wowway.com>
>> To: "Antique tractor email discussion group"
>> <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
>> Sent: Friday, September 05, 2008 9:48 PM
>> Subject: Re: [AT] test, hurricane
>>
>>
>> > Al, when I saw the following, MY mind went back to Hurricane Hazel,
>> > 1954, if my mind serves me correctly!  We lived outside
>> of Raleigh a
>> > ways---Dad was a Dept Head at NCS College (at the time).
>> We were out in
>> > the country; IIRC, it was about two weeks for power to be
>> restored, and
>> > longer than that for the phones.  We were very popular in the
>> > neighborhood; we had an old dug well, while most had drilled wells.
>> > Hard to use a bucket in them!!
>> >
>> > Gene
>> > Elgin, Illinois USA
>> >
>> > Al Jones wrote:
>> >> <...snip>  And you are right-- Raleigh learned about
>> hurricanes the hard
>> >> way.  They had a big mess after hurricane fran in 1996--
>> I thought I could
>> >> go back up there after the storm (I was still a student at
>> NCSU at the
>> >> time) and enjoy such luxuries we didn't have after the storm
>> at home,
>> >> stuff
>> >> such as running water, electricity, and air
>> conditioning.  WRONG!  Didn't
>> >> take me long to figure out that DH Hill Library and a lot of other
>> >> on-campus buildings had back up generators though.....
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Al
>> >>
>> >
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