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Government Weather

Georgia Emergency Management sends Debby disaster request to President

Some good news for Georgians impacted by Debby.

The Georgia Emergency Management Agency has sent a package containing statewide damage assessments to the President, asking him to make a disaster declaration for Georgia. The value given was $20.7 million, barely passing the required minimum of $20 million for the state. But it does pass, and a disaster declaration should be forthcoming once FEMA has done due diligence.

As I noted in an earlier piece, if the folks of Project 2025 had their way, we would not have met the minimum and Georgia would not be getting any FEMA disaster declaration funds. Thankfully, it’s 2024.

TS Debby disaster declaration request sent to President Biden, says CEMA director

Debby does Project 2025

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Just Shelley The Democratic Difference Weather

Debby didn’t do Savannah

Well, we lucked out. Debby was slow moving, which wasn’t good. But it degraded over land. Better yet, it grabbed and incorporated a dry air mass that kept most of the heavier overnight rain away.

We lost power, so I don’t have an accurate rain measurement from my system. However, according to the University of Georgia weather station across the street from me, we had a total of 8.01 inches in less than 24 hours.

Now, we’ll get about an inch of rain today, maybe an inch tomorrow, and it will be done.

So far the only damage is to our roof dryer vent, which seems to be weeping some water internally and sneaking out through a join. Not a big problem. And the power outage didn’t last long enough to spoil food in the fridge or freezer.

Other sections of the city weren’t as lucky, as there was quite a bit of flash flooding. Chatham county and Savannah really need to think about better storm water management, and how much unrestricted development they’re both allowing.

Anyway, last TS post for this storm.  Debby just said “Hey!” and is passing on through—its eye is directly overhead as I write this.

And Kamala Harris picked Tim Walz for VP! Let the politics begin!

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Savannah Weather

And Debby is still coming to town

Previous places I’ve lived have had emergencies that come up quickly and are usually over quickly. I’ve lived through a major ice storm in Grande Isle, Vermont, earthquakes in Washington and California, blizzards in Washington and Massachusetts, even Mount St. Helens, in Yakima, Washington.

A hurricane, though, is a different beastie. It’s like living in the land of giants and seeing a big ole shoe coming at you, and you can’t get out of the way. You’re waiting and watching. Waiting and watching.

We’re experiencing the impact of outer bands of Debby, which means periods of gusty winds, heavy rain, even a tornado watch, interspersed with periods of calm. Tonight and into tomorrow is when the real fun will start.

According to both Enki and NOAA, though we could get upwards of 15 inches of rain, the worst of the rain will likely occur in South Carolina. I’m sorry for our neighbors, but it’s not our fault and forgive us for being relieved. HOWEVER, not all of the models agree with this. Both the GFS and the ECMWF still show the major rain impact in our area.

(Edit: the GFS has since reversed itself, so the NOAA map seems more accurate all the time.)

Regardless, we’re going to get flooding rains. We already have a major river flood alert, and Savannah has put out warnings for so many roads that will flood that it’s just plain idiotic to drive tomorrow unless you must.

One of the bigger problems is community communication and its reliance on social media apps like X-witter, is not working well, and I’ll have more on this later this week. In the meantime, I’m just going to be sitting here, watching that shoe coming down.

Categories
Savannah Weather

Debby is coming to town

Debby is a hell of a bad name for a hurricane. I can imagine it on Facebook:

Marked safe from Debby

Nope.

Anyway, we don’t know how it will be. We know Savannah is on the path. We know we will be getting some winds, but not especially strong winds. And we know the biggest problem will be rain.

At this point in time, we’re expecting 10 inches, 15 inches, 20 inches, or possibly 30. Regardless, with the other bad rains we’ve had the last few weeks, we will have street flooding. And depending on where Debby plants her butt, we could be looking at some coastal flooding.

Stay tuned.

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