^^^ This! ^^^
Not to make light of things, but it feels like Someone is really pissed at us. (U.S.) Mother Nature, God, Poseidon, Neptune… probably ALL of them.
Gotcha. I see. I’m wondering when would be the cue to pack up and leave? Most people this far inland haven’t evacuated. I gotta play a soundcheck in 15 min and gotta play a gig in an hour…then I’m gonna do a quick sound system patching job in a local church…then planning on going to the studio to unplug everything and move it to the 3rd floor of the building (trying to make a few dollars before I go out of work for a week).
Would it possibly be a good idea to get out of here tonight? What do you think?
My advice would be to stay put and ride it out. You are not on the coast so you are highly unlikely to experience super damaging winds or storm surge. Instead, the big issue is the torrential rainfall. Most likely impacts are impassable roads, hindering first responders and supply chains to stores etc, and possible loss of power and/or water supply. Those conditions may last for many days, maybe even a couple weeks, so you need to be prepared for that. Being on the road, conditions can change so quickly and one can suddenly be cut off from being able to keep driving because of rapidly rising water. Nightmare!
What I have advised my family in southern SC is the same: stock up big time on all the provisions you can, especially non perishables, get batteries & candles and bottled water, and stay put. Get your Rx refilled, and take no chances-- under these conditions, nobody will be able to respond to a 911 call for an injury, they will all have their hands full saving lives and property in imminent danger. And the fewer vehicles on the road, the better off emergency services will have it.
With all that said, follow whatever instructions your local authorities issue, regardless of my advice. If they issue an evac notice, follow it-- they will not be kidding. My prediction is that for inland communities like yours, they will not require evac, but that’s not for me to say.
The absolute key to getting through these situations is being prepared for eventualities. And to be prepared, one must be informed. So keep your eyes on the NHC bulletins and local advisories, and be ready to act if need be.
Hang in there!!
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Addendum: If you don’t have a battery-powered radio, get one. If you lose power for any length of time that’ll be the only way to get critical info.
And with each passing hour, the reliability of the models improves and the potential for massive disaster increases. This latest summary is downright frightening. Now entirely possible that Flo could track down the SC coast while the center remains out over water. Total worst-case scenario that will lay waste to coastal SC if it comes to be. 
The last big storm we had on Florida’s west coast was Irma. I moved stuff and people to the middle floors of the building, not top or bottom, in case the roof came off, and the predicted 6ft of storm surge happened.
In the end, the storm eyewall kinda collapsed around Venice, about 30 miles away (at the time it was about a Cat 3) and it sorta passed us by as a confused mess, I even went outside to check, but it was still pretty much directly overhead. The Gulf water level also dropped by several feet as it was sucked out to sea by the high winds, but took a day or two to come back in, so wasnt anything like a Tsunami stlye storm surge for us.
It was not the ground water coming in that worried me most, it was the sewer backing up to the level of the toilet seat and overflow in the bathtub. Fortunately, that didnt happen, and shutting off everything absolutely non-essential at the breakers also kept the power on too.
Sooo… Make sure your toiletries and food/water supplies are up at the next level, but not too far up 
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And the hurricane is named Florence. Ironic.
If you ride it out, stock up on plenty of supplies and any resources you may need. Especially bottled water!
Oh, and you’ll need some music until the power goes out.
.
.
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A couple more to add to the list
And these…
That McMurtry tune (the last one) is particularly great…
You’re not kiddin’. Good tune! 
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Booooooooooo! Hissssssssss!
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Its pretty bad on the coast. I migrated inland to some higher ground at Rutherfordton NC… sitting here archiving old sessions on my hard drives while my father-in-law is watching Law And Order re-runs lol.
Dave was kind enough to take a quick look at the geography out here and give me his take on evacuating. As soon as I heard back from him we packed up and went west. All is good here so far. No rain yet, and hopefully when it comes we’ll be at less risk of loosing power. Some of my other friends went upstate to the Spartanburg/Greenville area, so I met up with them and smoked cigars on the porch yesterday. Doing ok so far.
I think Florence (the city in South Carolina) is in the dark now. Most of my friends went offline on Facebook and instagram. Might go get one more stogie in before that rain starts pouring
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So glad to hear you are out of harm’s way J! Such a relief. Florence SC is likely to take a direct hit in the coming 12 hours or so. Although by now the storm is “only” a tropical storm, it’s the rain and flooding that will be the huge deal through the weekend. The rain will start falling in earnest in Rutherfordton by about midday tomorrow, with 30-35 mph winds, and you’ll get a solid 24-36 hours of rainfall and probably 4 to 5 inches up there. But that’s nothing compared to what the coastal areas will endure. The shouting will all be over by midmorning to midday Monday up there.
The next big question will be what it’s like back home by then. Getting back may be difficult. At that point you’ll have to play it by ear and try to reach folks who are there to see what the conditions are like. Definitely get as much info as you can about conditions on the ground before you try to drive back. I expect there will be a lot of first responders still working hard, and you don’t want to get in their way.
Looks like my family in far southern SC are going to dodge this bullet, thankfully. But man, a lot of people are going to lose everything in this storm. So very much like Harvey here in Texas last year…
Its so massive it seems odd to watch news videos of people putting sand in one little bag…even 1000 bags isnt going to stop much is it?
hope the rain/wind fades out soon for you.
Only change to expectations in Rutherfordton is that the wind probably won’t reach 30 mph, but top out in the low 20s instead. Rain forecast unchanged, will be starting in the next hour or two and not stop until midmorning to midday Monday, with about 5" total accumulation. Stay the course…
Meanwhile, back in Florence, the prediction is for almost 6.5 inches of rain just today, after whatever has already accumulated (don’t have that info yet), with at least a couple more by Monday evening, and winds are holding at about 40 mph. You made the right choice to leave! The rainfall will be nearly nonstop until well into Monday evening there. Hopefully your father in law is OK with you guys staying until Tuesday at least, because IMO you should make no effort to get back on Monday. As above, try to get in touch with folks on the ground there sometime Monday and see what’s what…
Aw man. As soon as I read this I called in and cancelled a performance in (city of) Florence that I was scheduled to play tomorrow afternoon. The client was pretty pissed. They had asked me to consider driving back if the storm turned away or dissipated to the point it wasn’t a safe hazard. If the predictions are accurate the nastiest winds are gonna hit around midnight…so there would be no way of knowing if the concert hall even has power. And who in the HELL is going to go watch an orchestra play when half the city is without power and some houses are up to their knees in rain?? I try and do whatever I can to keep my contractors happy, but this was just silly. That show should have been cancelled a week ago.
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