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Article published Sep 4, 2008 Rain in Blount forecast, but not from hurricanes Evacuees await word on when they can return home
By Robert Norris of The Daily Times Staff
With hurricanes queuing up in the Atlantic and taking aim at the Gulf and East Coasts of the U.S., much of the Southeast is due for a soaking.
Can Blount County expect some relief from the rainfall deficit that has kept pastures dry and reservoirs low this summer?
According to Frank Ferrell, weather service spokesman at the Morristown office of the National Weather Service, Blount County can expect rain on Saturday -- just not because of a hurricane.
Gustav's remnants should stay west of us, but a cold front brings with it a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms.
Hurricane Hanna is forecast to reach the Carolina shore but to travel up the coast.
"Hanna might affect some of the eastern fringes of Tennessee, but it should not affect much. It would probably be a tropical storm by then, and I've never seen one cross a front," Ferrell said.
The forecast calls for the cold front to slow down.
"It will be semi-stationary for a short period of time. Hanna will probably be well off the Northeast by then."
Ferrell said another frontal system should reach East Tennessee early next week.
"Maybe Tuesday -- an even stronger one," Ferrell said. "It will be a welcome rain that will help going into the fall since it's normally dry then."
The livelier hurricane activity was expected, according to the NWS spokesman.
"Usually, about early August, we have a strong flow from west to east in the Gulf pushing them away. In late August, we get a stronger flow from east to west. That's where we are now," he said.
Ferrell noted the Weather Service had upped its forecast for the number of hurricanes this season.
"We need to get a traffic light (in the Atlantic)," he quipped.
Many of the storms that form west of Africa never impact the U.S. or even the Caribbean. They move into the north Atlantic and affect Europe, Ferrell said.
Evacuees in limbo
As the Federal Emergency Management Agency and state and local governments try to restore normalcy in the aftermath of Gustav, Tennessee Emergency Management Agency officials in Nashville and the Red Cross are awaiting word on when evacuees can return home.
"We have to be sure that we're ready here. We have to be sure they're ready down there," said Jeremy Heibt, public information officer for TEMA, speaking of the logistical problems of returning the evacuees.
"We're still in a holding pattern until we get concrete information as to when they are ready for them in Louisiana," he said Friday.
Betty Hale, executive director of the Blount County Chapter of the American Red Cross, also said they are awaiting word from FEMA through TEMA on when the evacuees can leave.
"What we're doing right now is getting people deployed," she said.
So far, one Monroe County volunteer has been deployed from here -- but to Memphis, not Louisiana.
The Blount Red Cross is helping with several self-evacuees who arrived on their own.
"They're wanting lodging, food and money to get back home," Hale said.