Toxic Rain in North Carolina????

To me it seems to be sulphuric acid rain. Wasn't there something about raining fire and brimestone?

Originally posted by Alethea
Lately we have experienced rain the past few days. The oddest thing I have noticed is that the rain has brought an (appreciated) coolness with it instead of mugginess.

I noticed this too. A cooling rain.
It's like it's raining but the humidity
is dryer than usual almost like an
artificial rain. And it stinks with
a foulness. It's very unusual.

And I assure you I am not
a hoaxer or a disinfo agent.
My story and pics are real.
However the cause of this event
is still under investigation

reply to post by boondock-saint


heehee...boil it like a baby bottle. looking forward to hearing about what happens. and about to really run outside with a flashlight after midnight to check my plants. i bet my batteries are out. haha.

Today it rained a good bit here in PA but I didn't notice any plants going funky. I realize that North Carolina is a good distance away from PA but just for fun I decided to let you all know that the rain hasn't seemed all that normal here either for the past two times it has rained. I doubt its anything to do with the oil or even acid rain. It could just be me (and it probably is) but it didn't smell right at all. I mean, I don't know if rain should ever have any kind of a set smell (sometimes it does) but yeah, it was strange.

Originally posted by Pauligirl
reply to post by boondock-saint

 

Is it something you can scrape off? If so, it may be Powdery mildew
www.clemson.edu...

Powdery mildew is the name given to a group of diseases caused by several closely related fungi. Their common symptom is a grayish-white, powdery mat visible on the surface of leaves, stems, and flower petals. There are many hosts; and although this disease is not considered fatal, plant damage can occur when the infestation is severe.

first of all I did not want to touch it
and I didn't have any tools to scrape
with. I'll have to try that tomorrow.

Is it even possible for a fungal or bacterial to cause this sort of rapid, progressive damage in a single day? I'm not a plant expert so I have no way of knowing. You said this rain storm happened the same day you posted the pictures? Perhaps I'm simply ignorant of it, but I've never heard of a plant infection that can do this that quickly.

The pattern of the splotches also looks, intuitively at least, like rain drops that struck the leaves, rather than something which spread naturally and progressively onto them. That seems extremely strange to me. I could be completely wrong, of course.

Can anyone clarify whether this pattern is typical of the fungal infections alluded to earlier?

[edit on 6/20/2010 by AceWombat04]

Originally posted by ~Lucidity
heehee...boil it like a baby bottle.

lmao
never was any good with babies
for some reason I kept feeling like
I was gonna drop them. And I'd never
forgive myself for that.

My guess would be all the COREXIT being sprayed.

Originally posted by boondock-saint

And I assure you I am not
a hoaxer or a disinfo agent.
My story and pics are real.
However the cause of this event
is still under investigation

I did not direct that towards you; you may have misunderstood.

When I found the forum discussing the topic of "black rain" in SW Florida, the OP had taken some pictures and tried to show them. There were many posts making fun of the person to discredit what he was tring to say. So it makes me wonder, if there IS anything odd like this happening, surely the disinfo agents would be out to try to discredit it.

Disinfo agents may get away with things like insults and a barrage of poking fun at people when they "work" on other forums...but they could not get away with that kind of behavior on ATS. Not only because ATS is better moderated, but also because we have a lot of people here who are experts in their fields and many sharp intelligent folks who research and never stop asking questions.

Edit to add:

I still think the gardenweb.com forum or maybe other similar ones would be able to give a quicker answer and offer collaboration on observations such as this. Maybe post there and come back and give us a link. Surely these folks are watching intently for signs.

[edit on 20-6-2010 by Alethea]

Originally posted by AceWombat04
Is it even possible for a fungal or bacterial to cause this sort of rapid, progressive damage in a single day?

I'm not a Gardner or even have a green thump.
My observation led me to believe these 3 stages
occurred over a period of time not just in 1 day.
That's why I mentioned the amount of rain
we have had in the past 2 weeks.

I am assuming these 3 stages by the different
things I saw. Not by time release photography.
I mean you can look at a meatloaf sitting on
a counter and just about tell how old is or
how long it's been sitting there. It goes through
stages of destruction all the way down til it
turns blue and green from mold.

The white spots seems newer and fresher
and the yellow spots looked older and the
dead stuff comes last in my assumed cycle.
I just noticed everything today.

I don't know how to build a house but I
can definitely pass by one and tell you
how far along they are in building it.
Used the same observations for this
event.

I'm in Western North Carolina and I'll be keeping a close eye out for this over the next couple of weeks, I'm not going to be much of a control group though as we spray the garden down with well water almost daily but I'll look at some of the other plants around the area. The Video that was posted earlier scared the crap out of me, is that area close to where BP was supposed to be spraying Corexit at night over populated area? Didn't really scare me until they showed the dead birds in thier nest, no crop related fungus that I know of is going to kill birds and plants in one fell swoop like that and the pics the OP posted does indeed look similar to the splotches on the leaves in the video from Louisianna.
Also it just occured to me that yeah the symptoms are similar to a fungal infection, but the OP said it was on the top of the leaves, there aren't many fungi that like the sunny side of things, do you know what direction the affected plants were facing? Was this area in full sun? etc.
"a large methane release will undoubtedly contribute to an increase in acid rain"
Man I hope this turns out to be nothing, for everybody's sake.

Originally posted by America?
My guess would be all the COREXIT being sprayed.

never thought of that.
does anybody know the effects
that stuff has on plant life???

get some test strips from a pool and hot tub place...easy way to test for acidity etc...

reply to post by twitchy

i didn't even think about looking
for dead birds. will look tomorrow.

If Uncle Sam and Brother BP are actively supressing worst case scenario related information from leaking to the public, I wonder who you could send samples of this stuff to for testing? It seems to me that a PH test would only really work on the rain water itself if it's reacting to foliage and turning it white it is probably going to be neutralized and tamper your results. What about sending a sample of the rain water to a commercial laboratory that tests well water adn just tell them it's out of a well you're concerned about?

Originally posted by twitchy
but the OP said it was on the top of the leaves, there aren't many fungi that like the sunny side of things, do you know what direction the affected plants were facing? Was this area in full sun? etc.

Man I hope this turns out to be nothing, for everybody's sake.

well the tomato plant leaf was facing Northwest
as well as the peach tree leaf.
The shrubs (white splotches) facing due west.
The last pic with the holes facing east.

We get our storms and rain coming in from
the west so it would fit the profile for rain water
striking the leaves as it falls on the west side
of the plants and shrubs.

And I hope your right. I hope
it's a fungus. Cause if that stuff
they got in the Gulf can come this far
north, then who knows how far it can travel
if it's airborne. I'm at least 1,000+ miles
from the spill.

What I have seen this week on the grass in large grey spots of some powdery stuff on my lawn. Seems whatever it is drys to a powdery grey substance. That is here in Eastern , N.C. Will post some pictures when I get my camera back.

P/S...I would believe corexit also....

[edit on 20-6-2010 by Caji316]

Originally posted by twitchy
If Uncle Sam and Brother BP are actively supressing worst case scenario related information from leaking to the public, I wonder who you could send samples of this stuff to for testing? It seems to me that a PH test would only really work on the rain water itself if it's reacting to foliage and turning it white it is probably going to be neutralized and tamper your results. What about sending a sample of the rain water to a commercial laboratory that tests well water adn just tell them it's out of a well you're concerned about?

HOLY CRAP!!!
Are you kidding me. I do NOT want the attention
this would bring if it is what we think it is. I'd
rather somebody else report it and get there findings.
I DO NOT want to be on the news like those folks
in MS. There will be no privacy around here.
Everybody and their brothers and uncles will be
showing up with test tubes and sample kits.
NO THANK YOU !!!!

Originally posted by wrathchild
get some test strips from a pool and hot tub place...easy way to test for acidity etc...

can I get those from Wal-Mart??
if so I may go on monday as I'll
be spending father's day with my
father.

Aquarium shops would be a great place to get a variety of test kits for water as well, if you're serious about testing it make sure you test it right so you don't get a false positive from a tin can or aluminum gutters or something...
(removed link Wrong one...)
If you test it, let me know, I'm not far from you really and this has piqued my curiosity. I'll probably end up testing mine as well!

[edit on 20-6-2010 by twitchy]