News

After track shift, Ian churns north, sparing mountains

By Bill Moss, Published: September 30, 2022

Hurricane Ian’s shift from a northwest to a due north track likely spared Henderson County a major shellacking from wind and rain.

The storm that slammed Florida as a category 4 exited the peninsula into the Atlantic before making landfall near Georgetown, South Carolina, about 2 p.m. Friday afternoon. The forecast had called for up to 8 inches of rain in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The projection was down to 1 to 3 inches at mid-afternoon Friday.

“So that will certainly improve the outlook from a couple of days ago but that amount of rain in a short period of time could still cause high water, flash flooding and travel difficulties,” said Henderson County Emergency Services Director Jimmy Brissie. “We are under a wind advisory so with high winds and rainfall we could see some power outages. ... The storm center track definitely shifted from what they forecasted two days ago, so that's put us on that far western edge of the area of impact,” he added. “If you look at the rain forecast, areas to the west of us quite possibly won’t get any rain at all.”

During past hurricanes that have spared the mountains, Henderson County has routinely deployed first responders to help areas that were impacted, including swift water rescue teams and other first responders.

“We told the state that we would have crews available this week if the impacts to our community were limited,” he said. “It could be personnel from the fire departments or law enforcement agencies, folks from our staff that would go work in other counties’ EOCs. Earlier in the week we submitted a list of resources that were available with that caveat — provided there were no impacts to Henderson County.”

“Henderson County has historically sent folks for about every major event that hasn't impacted Henderson County — Matthew, Florence, Dorian,” he said. “About every time, we have been able to send some resources to help other communities. Just as when we've needed help in the past they've come to help us.”

Saying that “it’s going to be a breezy afternoon,” Brissie advised people to monitor the weather and stay home if they don’t need to leave.

“Depending on how the rain comes, if we get heavy bands of rain we could see some flash flooding in certain areas," he said, "but we're certainly not looking at this time at the widespread impacts that were forecasted two days ago.”