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Saturday, June 23, 2018

Thunderstorms Expected This Afternoon
Updated with Community Liveblog

**NOTE** Updates will be posted in reverse chronological order at the end of this article. Scroll down to see them.


There is a line of storms moving toward Macon County this afternoon. Some of these storms have been severe and may be strong or severe when they arrive. I (Bobby) estimate they'll arrive in western Macon County between 4 and 5 pm (plus or minus 30 minutes) and will quickly cross the county from west to east.

If you plan on being outdoors during this time, please keep an umbrella handy and stay near shelter. The main hazard with these storms is expected to be lightning, briefly strong winds, small hail, and heavy downpours. If you are driving when these storms arrive, please slow down and increase the distance you follow other motorists.

The National Weather Service will alert us if they feel these storms will warrant a severe thunderstorm warning or a Special Weather Statement. You can see these for yourself at https://is.gd/MACONWARN

If you have a portable NOAA Weather Radio, make sure the batteries are charged and keep it with you.

Published 2:55 pm on Saturday, June 23, 2018

Text on map:

RADAR at 2:41 pm
Storms moving in from the west
should arrive in western Macon County
between 4:00 pm and 5:00 pm
plus or minus 30 minutes

#WNCscan #MaconSafety #MaconWx

HOW TO REPORT AN ELECTRICAL OUTAGE

Duke Energy

Call 800.769.3766 or in Spanish 866.4.Apagón (866.427.2466).

If you see a fallen power line or safety hazard, call Duke Energy at 800.Power.On (800.769.3766) or in Spanish 866.4.Apagón (866.427.2466) or contact your local emergency services immediately. Do not touch a power line or anything in contact with it and keep others away until help arrives.

Haywood EMC

To report or inquire about power outages, call 1-800-951-6088

WEATHER SPONSOR


Adams Products, a Division of Oldcastle is underwriting the daily weather briefing and public safety updates for the month. They have all your masonry products (block, mortars, tools), plus feature Belgrade Pavers and Sakrete Products. Open 7:30 AM to 4:00 PM, M-F, located at 895 Hickory Knoll Road, Franklin, NC.

Visit their Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/Adams.Oldcastle.Franklin.NC/

Their phone number is 828.524.8545, all are welcome, let them help you with your next project.

Updates and Liveblog will be posted below this line.

Some material cross-posted from our Open Thread on Facebook.
-----------------------------------


**2:37am** POWER OUTAGE REPORT

MACON COUNTY
779 Duke customers in 40 locations

SWAIN COUNTY
6 Duke customers in 3 locations

JACKSON COUNTY
142 Duke customers in 8 locations

GRAHAM COUNTY
34 Duke customers in 3 locations

CHEROKEE COUNTY
213 Duke Energy customers in 6 locations

A total of 3,643 Duke customers are out of service in North Carolina
Haywood EMC reports all outages in North Carolina have been repaired

**6:00pm** Coverage ended for the night.

**5:50pm** A reader reports several trees down on Walnut Road.

**5:37 pm** POWER OUTAGE REPORT

MACON COUNTY
2,050 Duke customers in 33 locations
6 Haywood EMC customers

SWAIN COUNTY
1,378 Duke customers in 5 locations

JACKSON COUNTY
176 Duke customers in 13 locations

GRAHAM COUNTY
264 Duke customers in 9 locations

CHEROKEE COUNTY
1,102 Duke Energy customers in 27 locations

A total of 8,622 Duke customers are out of service in North Carolina

**5:27pm** West Macon Fire Department is responding to a report of a power pole on fire near Pines RV Park on the Murphy Road (US-64). Further response of units not on the scene canceled at 5:41 pm.

**5:09pm** Cullasja Fire Department is responding to a tree down in powerlines near Riverside Fellowship Church. No injuries. (Command terminated at this location at 5:44 pm.

**5:07pm** There are too many outage locations to produce maps of them all. You can see them for yourself at via this Macon Media-produced short URL at https://is.gd/DukeOutages

**5:04pm** POWER OUTAGE REPORT

MACON COUNTY
1,843 Duke customers in 37 locations
2 Haywood EMC customers

SWAIN COUNTY
1,376 Duke customers in 3 locations

JACKSON COUNTY
76 Duke customers in 6 locations

**4:58pm** Franklin Fire Department is responding to a report of a tree down on Second Street with powerlines on fire.

**4:57pm** A reader reports trees in the road about three miles above the LBJ Job Corps on Wayah Road.

**4:55pm** Burningtown Fire Department is reporting multiple trees down and several power poles damaged and power lines down on Windy Poplar Road. This is along a half miles section of roadway.

**4:53pm** A reader reports a power line in the road on the Old Murphy Road.

**4:51pm** GIF of the RADAR loop between 3:39pm to 4:47pm showing the storm crossing the county.




**4:49pm** Franklin Police report they've closed Wayah Street between the Franklin Press and Porter Street due to power lines in the road.

**4:46pm** A reader reports the road through the Cullasaja Gorge is blocked. Probably by a tree or trees down.

**4:44pm** Nantahala Fire Department has been dispatched at the request of Medic 4 to an area on Wayah Road near Long Branch Road. Multiple trees are down and so are power lines.

**4:42pm** The bulk of the storm front has passed through Macon County, except near Highlands, where it will be exiting the county in the next 15 minutes. Rain will continue to fall for a little while after the front passes. I'm (Bobby) not expecting any more severe weather for the next hour or so. Reports of damage will continue to roll in for the next few hours.

**4:41pm** A reader reports a power outage on Sugarfork Road. There are 1,376 out of power in 3 locations in Swain County. A reader in the Deep Creek area of Swain County reports they lost power at 4:27 pm.

**4:39pm** There are currently 1,347 Duke Energy customers in Macon County w/o service in 26 separate outages. There are also outages reported in neighboring counties. Crews are responding.

**4:37pm** Information on the outage in the Nantahala Community



DUKE ENERGY OUTAGE INFORMATION
[click image to enlarge]
Current Customers Affected: 1,137
First Reported: Jun 23, 3:59 PM
Estimated Restoration: Assessing Damage

**4:35pm** A reader reports a loud boom near Ulco Drive and Conley Road. (This was probably transformers blowing as several treees and power lines were knocked down on Wayah Street)

**4:34pm** A reader reports a limb blocking one lane of the road on Iotla Church Road, near the sharp curve by Windy Poplar Road.

**4:32pm** A reader reports a power outage on Fulton Road.

**4:29pm** Duke Energy reports over 1,100 customers w/o service in the Nantahala area. EMS reports numerous trees down blocking area roads. Medic 4 reports road blocked at Wayah Road and Long Branch Road.

**4:28pm** Franklin Police are responding to a report of a tree down blocking one lane of East Main Street at Tallents Produce. A reader reports power outage in the Cowee COmmunity.

UPDATE #6 4:27 PM Photo shared by a reader of the storm moving in on the northern part of the county



UPDATE #5 4:25 PM Open Thread started on Facebook Page. See the embed below:



UPDATE #4 4:00 pm
Hail storm indicated on RADAR. MAp follows.



RADAR indicates hail up to 0.75 inches in this storm nd 90% chance of hail. Max rainfall rates of 2-4 inched per hour are also indicated by RADAR. The map with this post shows the hailstorm and projected path. If you're in that area, take shelter immediately.

[click image to enlarge]

time 4:00 pm on 06-23-2018

UPDATE #3 3:45 pm The rest of the county is now under a Severe Thunderstorms Warning. Text and map follows.

BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
Severe Thunderstorm Warning
National Weather Service Greenville-Spartanburg SC
343 PM EDT SAT JUN 23 2018



The National Weather Service in Greenville-Spartanburg has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...
Western Stephens County in northeastern Georgia...
Habersham County in northeastern Georgia...
Rabun County in northeastern Georgia...
Southern Macon County in western North Carolina...
Northwestern Oconee County in Upstate South Carolina...

* Until 445 PM EDT.

* At 342 PM EDT, severe thunderstorms were located along a line extending from 4 miles south of Andrews to 6 miles east of Blairsville to 8 miles northeast of Dahlonega, moving east at 50 mph.

HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Expect damage to trees and power lines.

* Locations impacted include...
Toccoa, Franklin, Clayton, Clarkesville, Cornelia, Demorest, Mount Airy, Highlands, Mountain City and Tiger.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Scattered trees and power lines will be blown down in the warned area. Seek shelter inside an interior room.

Please report damaging winds, hail, or flooding to the National Weather Service Greenville-Spartanburg by calling toll free, 1, 800, 2 6 7, 8 1 0 1, or by posting on our Facebook page, or Tweet it using hashtag nwsgsp. Your message should describe the event and the specific location where it occurred.

--------------------------------------------
UPDATE#2 3:20 pm





BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
Severe Thunderstorm Warning
National Weather Service Greenville-Spartanburg SC
314 PM EDT SAT JUN 23 2018

The National Weather Service in Greenville-Spartanburg has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...
  Northwestern Macon County in western North Carolina...
  Swain County in western North Carolina...
  Graham County in western North Carolina...

* Until 415 PM EDT.

* At 313 PM EDT, severe thunderstorms were located along a line extending from 8 miles south of Madisonville to 17 miles northwest of Murphy to 9 miles east of Ducktown, moving northeast at 45 mph.

  HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts.

  SOURCE...Radar indicated.

  IMPACT...Expect damage to trees and power lines.

* Locations impacted include...
  Franklin, Bryson City, Robbinsville, Town Of Santeetlah, Smoky Mountains-Newfound Gap, Smoky Mountains-Fontana Area, Lake Santeetlah, Fontana Lake, Nantahala Lake and Fontana Village.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Scattered trees and power lines will be blown down in the warned area. Seek shelter inside an interior room.

Please report damaging winds, hail, or flooding to the National Weather Service Greenville-Spartanburg by calling toll free, 1, 800, 2 6 7, 8 1 0 1, or by posting on our Facebook page, or Tweet it using hashtag nwsgsp. Your message should describe the event and the specific location where it occurred.
---------------------------------------------------

UPDATE #1 **3:07pm** The National Weather Service has posted a Special Weather Statment regarding these storms for the Graham County area until 4 pm.

Special Weather Statement
National Weather Service Greenville-Spartanburg SC
304 PM EDT SAT JUN 23 2018

NCZ058-232000-
Graham NC-
304 PM EDT SAT JUN 23 2018

...STRONG THUNDERSTORMS WILL IMPACT GRAHAM COUNTY UNTIL 400 PM EDT...

At 304 PM EDT, Doppler radar indicated strong thunderstorms along a line extending from 10 miles south of Madisonville to 4 miles northeast of Ducktown to near Blue Ridge, and moving east at 50 mph.

Locations to be impacted include...
Robbinsville, Town Of Santeetlah, Fontana Village, Lake Santeetlah, Fontana Lake, Stecoah, Tapoco, Cheoah, Deals Gap and Nantahala.

Wind gusts up to 40 mph and very heavy rainfall rates of 1 to 2 inches per hour will be possible in these areas.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Gusty winds can blow down trees that are dead, or that have weakened root systems. Outdoor furniture and similar items can be tossed around if not anchored. Seek shelter indoors.




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