Ivan visits TimCity (and my city)

This week TimCity was in the eye of the storm. Hurricane Ivan ravaged the Florida panhandle, and made its way through Alabama and Mississippi on its way north and east. In Virginia, we've had some heavy rains, high winds and at least a couple of tornadoes in the Roanoke area. It's been one scary storm, but Tim tells it like it was closer to the area of impact from his post in Birmingham. Check out his blog.

Fot the AP perspective read below:

Ivan Remnants Wreak Havoc Across Southeast
By PAUL NOWELL

CASHIERS, N.C. (AP) - The remnants of Hurricane Ivan left behind a violent mark on the Southeast, killing several people, washing away scores of roads, leaving thousands without electricity and sending search teams to scour damaged areas for stranded residents.

Utility companies said more than 172,000 electricity customers in North Carolina, 17,300 in West Virginia and 92,000 in western Pennsylvania were without power late Friday.

Winds reached 60 mph and 3 to 12 inches of rain fell in North Carolina's mountainous western tip, which was still sodden from Frances' floods last week. The storm left a trail of disaster in 16 counties.

The storm pushed into West Virginia late Friday, where more than 3,000 people were evacuated as flooding, mudslides and several tornadoes hit.

Tornadoes in Berkeley County collapsed structures and tossed several tractor-trailers on their sides on Interstate 81, causing at least six injuries, emergency officials said. Emergency crews used helicopters, boats and four-wheel-drive vehicles to rescue residents trapped in buildings and vehicles.

Across the state, 45 roads were closed by flooding, officials said.

A flood watch for most of West Virginia was to remain in effect until 8 p.m. Saturday and Gov. Bob Wise declared a state of emergency. The American Red Cross set up shelters in 14 counties and the Salvation Army was preparing to provide food and other aid.

In the Piedmont area of North Carolina, Ivan spawned a tornado that hop-scotched northward, cutting a path through western Guilford and Rockingham counties. Five homes were destroyed, and 54 others were damaged, most of them in Rockingham. No one was seriously injured, authorities said.

Rain and high wind beat down on the Triangle area in central North Carolina which includes Raleigh, where siding and insulation was ripped from the buildings and small planes overturned at the Raleigh-Durham International Airport.

Ivan was downgraded to a tropical depression by the time it reached North Carolina late Thursday, as was Hurricane Frances when it arrived Sept. 7. North Carolinians had little time to recover between the storms.

Eight deaths blamed on remnants of the storm in North Carolina were in the southwestern part of the state. In all, Ivan was blamed for 70 deaths in the Caribbean and at least 40 in the United States, 16 of them in Florida. Most people died when Ivan was still a hurricane.

Four people were killed Friday in Macon County, in the southwest corner of the state, said Rob Brisley with the state Office of Emergency Management. A toddler, an unborn child and two adults died when a wall of water smashed a community of 30 homes to bits.

"There was no warning,'' said Tim Shirley, whose mother-in law was killed and father-in-law was missing. ``The kids were watching TV, and then the power cut out, and it was just like, boom, life changes.''

Floodwater swept away two occupants of a truck as volunteer firefighters tried to rescue them early Friday in Buncombe County. A third man was saved.

Doris Baxter, 69, of Canton, apparently drowned in her car at the edge of a tomato field near the Pigeon River, said Haywood County Sheriff Tom Alexander.

A man was killed in Henderson County when a tree fell onto a house, said First Sgt. Everett Clendenin of the State Emergency Response Team.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation said nearly 200 primary and secondary roads were impassable Friday in western counties.

Interstate 40 was closed from Exit 451, just inside Tennessee, to Exit 20 in North Carolina, on the edge of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Floodwaters began receding late Friday and flood watches were lifted, the weather service said.

``All the major rivers and streams are receding as well as can be expected,'' Brisley said. ``There is not a concern tonight about significant rainfall in this region.''

Ken Shafer of Laurel Park in Henderson County said he clocked winds of more than 61 mph and recorded 9.14 inches of rain at his house, with rain cascading down at a rate of almost 9 inches per hour during one downpour.

``It's messed up here, worse probably than any place in the county,'' he said. ``I bet we have 2,000 trees down.

Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., said she will tour storm-damaged areas in Buncombe and Henderson counties Saturday.

In Virginia, tornados spawned across the state, toppling trees, damaging buildings and prompting the governor to declare a state of emergency Friday. In Henry County, a tornado tore the roof off a factory, flipped two tractor-trailer rigs off a four-lane highway, damaged homes and ripped up or snapped thousands of trees, Sheriff Frank Cassell said.

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell declared a disaster emergency late Friday in four western Pennsylvania counties as record rainfall prompted widespread evacuations, shut down major roads, and trapped people in homes, businesses and on bridges.