Irene, What a Fickle Broad You Were

I have no complaints.  We were so lucky that she downgraded from a Category 3 to a Cat 1, buy the time she reached us. 

I had talked to Terry twice on Friday morning while he was at work at the Marine Base.  Some of the guys there were planning a Hurricane Party for Saturday.  Oh, yes, I remember being 20 something.  His first words to me were " I think we'll just hunker down and ride it out."   Has my mother possessed his body?  Terry, in all 30 years we have been together, has never said "hunkered" once.  This weekend I heard it at least a dozen times.  He said that's what the guys on base were saying.  I, for one, did not want to hunker down.  I wanted to get the heck out of Dodge.  He finally agreed with me so I was relieved that I wouldn't have to have a screaming "hissy fit", another southern expression I was glad to employ.

We were in out hotel room watching our corner of the world get pummeled by winds and rain.  I mostly feared flooding.  I prayed the downspout channel would work and it did.  We were dry.

On our home we saw a lot of downed trees, a lot of billboards that were destroyed, and some down power lines.

Downed power lines near Havelock, where The Cherry Point MCAS is, where Terry works.

This is the line to cross the intercoastal waterway bridge from Morehead City to Atlantic Beach.  You needed to  prove residency to cross.

Just yesterday this was the story there.  

                                       I have no idea where you start on something like this.

                                                        This is a street behind us.

This guy says it all doesn't he?  He seemed in a daze looking at this huge tree he had probably just finished cutting up.

One of my neighbors had a beat up Crepe Myrtle and another had a downed Ornamental Pear.  We were lucky.        

I was surprised to see that the Honda and the Ford Dealerships had removed there dozens and dozens of cars from their parking lots.  Where do you put 100 cars?  The Chevrolet dealership held on to theirs.  We saw about 40, easy, Progress Energy Power trucks out on the road.  We arrived home about 10:30am and by 2pm we had power.  A lot of areas still do not, but I am sure they will soon. I was so impressed with all those trucks out.

 
So I have survived my first hurricane.  I don't know if if counts when you run away from it.  I may run from the next one too.  We did all we could and prayed that was enough.  This time it was, for me.  My heart is with those that had damage and faced tornadoes in the midst of this.  I am looking forward to boredom now.

Run Forest Run!

About noon yesterday, my weather guy told me that Irene's path was right over my house.  (Well he almost said that.)  If you saw Anderson Cooper at Atlantic Beach or updates from there, that's my beach.  Pine Knoll Shores and Emerald Isle are all beaches connected to each other.  I'm an Anderson Cooper Fan but to have CNN in your home town is never a good thing.

 I called Terry at work to tell him we needed to get out of Dodge.  I went from "Staying" preparations to "get in the car right now and run" preparations.  He got home about 1pm and we were on the road to Raleigh by 2pm.    We stopped a little east of there and spent one night.  This am the power went out so we are in another hotel south of there.  The only thing we forgot was a big one.  We didn't unplug the computer or the TVs.  Oops

We will go home in the morning.  Cross your fingers for us.  Irene was not as bad as predicted so maybe we are going to be OK

An Unwanted Houseguest Named Irene

It look like she's coming for the weekend whether I want her to or not.

Here's Irene's path.

Here's me in that little red area.

See the Southern Outer Banks?   Morehead City.... cross the causeway to Atlantic Beach.  I'm 7 miles inland from there.

When you live this close to the coast, in my area anyway, there are not a lot of store options.  There are no malls, one Lowes, no Home Depot, no Gill Roy's got it.  There is is a Belk and a Walmart.  No Target.  So I spent my morning at Lowes and Walmart trying to find an expandable extension for my downspout  that soaks my back yard right by the house.  Remember, I live in a condo community, and it so happens that my backyard area has a man made burm about 15 feet from my sun porch that is planted with Crepe Myrtle.    For my sun room,  think 3 sets of sliding glass doors across the back of a  room.  It is built on a cement slab on the ground.  The down spout send tons of water right there Yep, if the heaven pour down on us, as well as that down spout,  I will get wet.   The extension needs to go across the yard area and over the burm into a large football field size area.  It's only about 25 feet that I need.   No such thing.  Lowes has 10 feet or 100 feet.    So I called Terry at work.  It's all him now.  As is getting cement tiles to raise the two bookcases out there.  UPDATE:  He found what we needed and the bookcase are raised.  All my photo albums are in my bedroom.
So far, the only N.C. mandatory evacuations are from Ocracoke Island.  We took the ferry last fall (about an hour ride) over there, spent the night and went on up to Cape Hatteras ( which is at the point that sticks out like an elbow on the map. and on to Rodanthe. I was disappointed in Rodanthe.  I was looking for Richard Gere ( Nights in Rodanthe)  I think and I didn't find him.

I would imagine, as time goes on, more will be evacuated.  I was at my Dr.'s office yesterday and the nurse there lives in Beaufort, which is on the water and you can see it on the map.  She said, " I am 57 years old and have never left, but this time, I am."    Okay..... That gave me something to think about. 

So for now, I am doing last minute getting ready stuff.  Food that can be cooked on the grill.  We have plenty of bottled water.  I bought a new "sun tea" jug so I won't go through tea withdrawl.  Bags of ice in a cooler.  Bring in the grill, the chairs off the porch, the gazing globe, etcl.  All that stuff.   After all this preparation, she will probably blow right by and we won't get much.  I'm hoping!   Mother Nature is a contrary woman!


I do have to thank Laura from A Simple Happy Life for drawing my name as the winner of her Frankenmuth, Michigan  Give Away.   I lived about 30 minutes from there, most of my life, so this is such a piece of home.  Lucky me!   Please vist her blog.  She is a treasure to read.