Hurricane Helen Barrels Down

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Hurricane Helen is Barreling Down

Greenville — Hurricane Helen means business for Florida, and Greenville will be soaked with her residue of rain and wind.

Thousands woke up without power in Greenville on Wednesday morning.  By late afternoon, nearly 5,000 were still without power despite the best efforts of Duke Power’s diligent workers.

Thursday night the aftermath of Hurricane Helen will dump more rain from the worse hurricane of the year, reports meteorologists.

One man awoke Wednesday morning and found a utility truck searching via cables for clogged drains 20 feet underground. All is clear, reported Kevin a contract worker for the utility. He insisted on remaining anonymous. He doesn’t want his face going viral on social media.  Before the anticipated deluge, authorities want to be sure that no water backup would aggravate flooding in or near flood zooms.

Kevin runs a camera down a drain and a screen in the back of his truck shows open and clear drains, water flowing easily to designated reservoirs. He promptly reports his findings to headquarters via phone. Then he’s off to another suspect location.

Most wind damage was in the West End of Greenville.  But if you waited too long to get out and about, you saw no evidence of damage and scattered tree branches and leaves.  Crews were up and at it early, clearing the area for business as usual.

A pop-up storm wrecked havoc on trees, tossing up debris and scattering it about, said a Duke spokesman.

Now all need to be alert and ready for whatever remains of the force of Helen when she strikes Greenville Thursday night.