Area likely to be impacted by remnants of Hurricane Ivan

While many uncertainties remain about Hurricane Ivan as of presstime Tuesday, one thing is for sure: Alleghany County will be impacted by the storm.

The projected storm track shows the most likely path carrying the storm over the Blue Ridge Mountains and Alleghany County, although the strength of the storm, wind speeds and rain fall amounts remain very much unknown. Even if the storm veers to the left or right in its trek here, the county will still likely be impacted by heavy rains as the remnants of the hurricane pass.

The National Hurricane Center was stating Tuesday night that there is a possibility that the hurricane could stall out over the Appalachian Mountains, which could lead to severe flooding. However, the center indicated that the computer models and other forecasting methods were not completely conclusive on when or where that might happen.

“Ivan continues to be the dominant weather maker through the weekend,” said a forecast by the National Weather Service. “It also continues to be the biggest variable in how our forecast pans out. (There is) still a lot of uncertainty in this forecast.” The current predictions show the storm in Tennessee on Saturday, just west of the spine of the Appalachians. “If Ivan were to continue a nice northward movement, things would be good,” the forecast said. “However, the official forecast, along with what the models are showing, has the remnants of Ivan stalling out and meandering around the central Appalachians through early next week.”

Local Emergency Management Coordinator Gerald Leftwich said he also has no conclusive information on the storm’s direction or strength. “The National Weather Service is still uncertain of the path its going to be taking,” Leftwich said. “But we should go ahead and make preparations in case this event has a serious effect on us here.”

Leftwich said he feels certain that this area will have a heavy rain event from Ivan.

Get the rest of this article in this week's issue of the Alleghany News! Back