East Coast Flooding Joaquin Oct 2015

Five states along the eastern coast of the United States have declared a state of emergency in anticipation of Hurricane Joaquin. It is no longer expected to make landfall along the coast.

USA East Coast Flooding – #Joaquin

Situation Report  – (period covered: Oct 1 – Oct 4)

Prepared by: Humanity Road / Animals in Disaster     Follow: @Humanityroad / @Disasteranimals / @jAidDog  / @Digihums

Situation Overview

Background:

As of 8pm Sunday October 4, five states (Florida, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia) along the eastern coast of the United States have declared a state of emergency in anticipation of Hurricane Joaquin. It is no longer expected to make landfall along the coast. Still, various hurricane models have shown Joaquin striking anywhere from North Carolina to Massachusetts over the last few days.

Serious flash flooding has occurred in many locations, including in Charleston and Columbia South Carolina where numerous swift-water rescues have been reported.  Along the coast of South Carolina, 24.23 inches of rain has been measured just east of Charleston near Boone Hall Plantation. Hurricane Joaquin rain belts have been affecting the East coast.  A dangerous flooding situation is developing from eastern South Carolina to central North Carolina.  Evacuation orders and dusk-to-dawn curfews are being issued in some locations.

Highlights: Embedded image permalink

Oct 4: Due to the broad geographic footprint of this storm, we are publishing a special social media situation report with who to follow and general overview of the current situation.  If you are travelling and need information on roads be sure to visit the road links below, or dial 511 for up-to-date travel info.  Power outages and road closures may alter your route or travel plans. Call 911 only in an emergency; in many cases 211 can answer your non-emergency questions about local services.

Significant updates since last report:

Oct 4 – Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are extremely active with local and global discussions about the size and impact of the storm. Primary hashtags are #Joaquin #HurricaneJoaquin .  Local photos and videos about the hurricane are coming out across a broad geographic footprint along the entire eastern coastline, with the heaviest impacts in South Carolina.  There are many different hashtags, for example: #Joaquin #SC #SCWX #SouthCarolina #SCFlood #NCwx #NorthCarolina #NCFlood #JoaquinNC . Currently 100 #Joaquin tweets are emerging every 13 minutes, for #SCFlood Tweetreach reports 100 tweets every three minutes.  Our keyword search for impacts and urgent needs has returned over 150,000 results in the past 24 hours.

North Carolina

General situation

Oct 4 Tidal flooding is a concern along NC beach http://on.wcnc.com/1hjFw1v at 4:15pm @NWSWilmingtonNC Reported roads around New Hanover county flooded & impassable – some cars stranded. Local Emergency Management @NCEmergency is asking people to avoid any unnecessary travel due to the threat of flash flooding across portions of SE North Carolina.  Coastal areas will also be impacted with higher than normal tides along barrier islands and mainland tidal creeks during high tide Monday. Evacuation orders are in place for portions of the county.

Oct 1 NC Declaration of State of Emergency  

Who to follow

Humanity Road North Carolina Twitter List https://twitter.com/HumanityRoad/lists/north-carolina1 

For NC State  Flood and Emergency info @NCEmergency @GovOfficeNC @NCDOT

Shelter @RedCrossENC @RedCrossCNCC 

Weather @NWSWilmingtonNC   @NOAA_NC

North Carolina Medical Assistance Team @nc400smat

FEMA Region IV – @femaregion4

Hashtags

Macro Hashtags #NCwx #NorthCarolina #NCFlood #JoaquinNC

Micro location tags Outer Banks #OBX Charlotte #cltwx 

Links

North Carolina Roads = http://www.ncdot.gov/traffictravel/ 

Road andTraveler information http://www.ncdot.gov/traffictravel/ 

Hurricane Evacuation Routes http://www.ncdot.gov/travel/evacuationmaps/ 

Current Flood Map http://1.usa.gov/1MTjRIR 

Current WX Alerts  http://alerts.weather.gov/cap/nc.php?x=1 

North Caroloina Power outage map – Duke energy – http://outagemap.duke-energy.com/ncsc/default.html

South Carolina

General situation

Oct 4  President Obama has declared South Carolina a state of emergency. Residents are advised to stay where they are, due to extreme flash flooding across the state. Videos have emerged of severe flooding conditions and a civil emergency message was posted for the entire state of South Carolina instructing residents to “Remain where you are.” http://wapo.st/1PTdciw  RedCross reported currently operating 26 evac shelters in South Carolina for communities impacted by flooding. They need immediate help with sheltering, and in the coming days with cleanup. click: http://ow.ly/SZXZV  Social Media traffic is focused mostly on photos and videos of flooding locations, status of bridges and roads.  Some discussions about boat and helicopter rescues, trapped occupants, flooded fire trucks and a gas leak.  @LexingtonPD reported the dam break at Old Mill Pond. Also severe flooding is impacting Columbia which is at the confluence of several rivers swollen by several days of heavy rains, @SCEMD @CityofColumbia @RichlandSC is enforcing curfews currently in place 6pm-6am 

Oct 1 State of Emergency Declaration

Who to follow

Humanity Road SC Twitter list: https://twitter.com/HumanityRoad/lists/south-carolina1

Shelters open in #SC #Follow @RedCrossSC

Airports – Charleston @CHS_Airport Columbia @CAE_ColumbiaSC

                 Greensville/Spartanburg GSPAirport

Power:  @santeecooper  @DukeEnergy

FEMA Region IV – @femaregion4

Hashtags

Macro Hashtags: #SC #SCWX #SouthCarolina #SCFlood

Micro Location tags: #Charleston SC #Charlestonflooding #chstrfc #chswx

#SumterSC #columbiaSC #Columbia #Greenville #Greenwood #Spartanburg #Union

Links

South Carolina Roads By County = http://206.74.144.9/RoadConditions/ 

Need info about travel conditions in South Carolina? http://www.scdot.org/getting/StormResources.aspx 

Coastal Evacuation routes http://www.scdot.org/getting/evacuation.aspx 

Current Flood Map http://1.usa.gov/1QSpZ4U 

Current Wx Alerts:  http://alerts.weather.gov/cap/sc.php?x=1 

South Carolina Power Outage map – https://www.sceg.com/outages-emergencies/power-outages/outage-map

http://t.co/pKJ4lfQqlG

Virginia

General situation

Oct 4 The Virginia Dept. of Emergency Management @VDEM is issuing regular updates on their Twitter account and Facebook pages.  As of Oct 4, 40 gauges are at or near flood conditions and 3 major floods.  Roads are impacted across the state.   Hampton VA reports that currently 32 roads are impassable  https://twitter.com/HamptonVAPolice/status/650745170036699137 

Sept 30 The Commonwealth of Virginia declared a State of Emergency

Who to follow

Humanity Road Virginia Twitter list https://twitter.com/HumanityRoad/lists/virginia 

For SC State  Flood and Emergency info @VDEM @VaDOT @GovernorVA 

For Weather Info in the state of NC @NWSBlacksburg 

For Roads @GADeptofTrans and @VaDOTHR

Airports @Reagan_Airport, @Dulles_Airport, @Dulles_Toll_Rd and @DullesMetrorail 

For Power information @DomVApower @AppalachianPowe   @NOVEC  @RappElecCoop

Portsmouth  @portsvaevents  and https://www.facebook.com/portsmouth.va

Virginia Beach @CityofVaBeach @NWSWakefieldVA 

Petersburg @PetersburgV and like https://www.facebook.com/CityofPetersburgVA/

Hampton @cityofhampton @VaDOTHR  Like https://www.facebook.com/HamptonVA

Norfolk @NorfolkVA and like https://www.facebook.com/NorfolkVA 

FEMA Region III – @femaregion3

Hashtags

Macro hashtag #VAwx #VAFloods #VAFlooding

Micro location tags: #Norfolk #RDU #RVA

Links

Road map http://www.511virginia.org/ and travel info http://virginiadot.org/travel/  

Hurricane Evacuation Guide and Map 

Current Flood map 

Current WX Alerts http://alerts.weather.gov/cap/va.php?x=1 

Volunteers Reporting

Alice, Aline, Allyson, Cat, Cindy, John, Joshua, Juju, Katelyn, Lloyd, Robin, Susan, Tim