Rain Threatens More Than Fun

Source from:  By Tonya Root The Sun News Posted on Wed, Jun. 28, 2006 06/29/2006

If you're on vacation, the recent rain showers have likely dampened some outdoor activities. If you're a farmer in the eastern Carolinas, it could mean the end of your maturing tobacco crop and recently planted soybeans. A tropical air mass and low pressure system stalled over much of the eastern seaboard and kept dark clouds and rain falling in Brunswick County, N.C., and Georgetown and Horry counties. But the heavy thunderstorms weren't limited to the Grand Strand and its extended area. Flooding was reported in Charlotte, Washington, upstate New York, Delaware and Maryland, officials said. The National Hurricane Center was also tracking a stormy area about 140 miles south of Cape Fear, N.C., that it said could develop into a tropical depression at any time Tuesday. Horry County's Emergency Management Director Randy Webster watched the rainfall and the tropical system closely Tuesday because of its rainfall potential. "The good part is it's coming in bands," Webster said. "We're getting a lot of rain, but it's all over the county." The thunderstorms pushed the Grand Strand's rainfall totals above normal as of Monday, said John Quagliariello, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Wilmington, N.C. The area received 0.17 inches of rain Monday and by 1 p.m. Tuesday 0.2 inches of rain had fallen, he said. "Other areas have probably received more than that because some areas are getting more heavy rainfall according to the radar. In the western part of Horry County they're are getting up to an inch," Quagliariello said. "There is a small chance of rain for the rest of the week but it's more of the summertime rainfall pattern." The rains prompted at least 12 ocean swim advisories because of increased bacteria from stormwater runoff, and the risk of rip currents at area beaches intensified with the stormy weather. Since farmers weren't able to work in their fields this week, many paced indoors worried about the future of their crops and livelihoods, said Johnny Jenerette, executive director of Horry County's Farm Service Agency "The farmers are sweating it," Jenerette said. "The corn is loving it, but the tobacco is not. This rain has washed a lot of the fertilizer away from the tobacco ... and hopefully it's not [drowning]. The worse scenario is we get so much water that it drowns the tobacco." If the tobacco doesn't soak up too much water, growers were fearful a hot sun would return and cause the crop's large green leaf to wilt in the field. According to a crop report issued Monday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Georgetown County tobacco growers said topping was delayed because they were not able to get into the fields. "The corn loves this, and it came right in the best time for corn because it's shooting the tassel, which means it's at the critical stage for water," Jenerette said. "Soybeans were just planted and could be washed away or packed so hard until they won't come up. It's a critical time for soybeans." Commuters and residents in the Northeast also suffered in the heavy rains, officials said. In Elkton, Md., a 6-foot-wide, 2-foot-deep hole opened on Interstate 95, blocking traffic in two northbound lanes, state police said. More than 7 inches of rain fell on the nation's capital in a 24-hour period Sunday and Monday, shutting down several federal buildings and closing some of the city's busiest tourist attractions just days before the Fourth of July weekend, and forecasters warned that more rain was likely every day this week. Enditem