PROJECT ALERT NOTICE (GA NC SC) USGS SAWSC response to post-Hurricane Helene flooding

Date: Sun, 29 Sep 2024 19:19:09 EDT

Summary: The USGS South Atlantic Water Science Center (SAWSC) continued post-storm field operations for sites safely accessible following the catastrophic flooding arising from the passage of Hurricane Helene across Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina on September 26-27, 2024.

(1) All personnel in the Asheville Field Office region as well as 2 Raleigh Field Office crews (or 4 hydrologic technicians) currently in the Asheville area were accounted for in this morning's USGS EARS alert.

(2) Power was reported as still being out in much of the area, but cell coverage had made some improvements overnight. In short, the Asheville region is still considered a disaster zone in terms of infrastructure and available services, even as the flood waters have started to recede.

(3) A total of 10 crews were dispatched today from the Tifton (2), Savannah (1), Columbia (3), and Asheville (4) Field Offices for various tasks ranging from obtaining high-flow measurements and completing repairs and needed equipment checks and verifications for streamgages that were inundated (but not destroyed).

(4) Given the overall conditions across parts of western NC where (a) search and rescue operations are still underway combined with (b) damaged infrastructure and lack of widespread available services (vehicle fuels, food, safe water, lodging arrangements that otherwise needs to be available first for the local populations), the SAWSC Data section has began working under the oversight of the USGS Regional office to develop plans for post-storm field operations. Development of post-storm field operation plans will evolve in the next several days as conditions in the affected areas are better known.

(5) Of the 81 sites serviced by the Asheville Field Office, gage heights following the storm exceeded the current ratings. USGS personnel in the Asheville office as well as other offices supporting the Asheville office began working today to extend ratings where data was available to support such extensions.

(6) As of today's accounting, there appear to be 20-30 sites that will require follow-up indirect measurements to compute the peak discharge after the storm's passage.