USO Volunteer Dinner

Last night I attended the USO Jacksonville Volunteer Appreciation Dinner.  It was a really good dinner, catered by the Carolina Ale House restaurant here in Jacksonville.  It was a typical Eastern Carolina menu:

Barbecue 

(in NC that means pulled pork, with a Carolina style sauce)

macaroni and cheese

coleslaw

 a potato side similar to scalloped potatoes

and a roll

The president of the USO NC was there and spoke about the past two months and how busy they were for the USO. When there were riots in Charlotte and the National Guard were called, the USO had to set up a mobile unit, and then again after Hurricane Matthew when the National Guard came out to help they had to set up another USO unit.  He said within 8 hours, they had a unit set up to help take care of the needs of the National Guard with the help of Walmart and Harris Teeter (a grocery store) Amazing.  He said Walmart and Harris Teeter said, "just come in and take what you need."  So they did.  Bottled water, sunscreen, wet wipes, socks, etc.  

He had very nice things to say about volunteers and said they couldn't do what they do without us.  The USO is "The Force behind the Force."  They gave out awards according to how many hours of volunteering you have done.  Many people have hundreds and hundreds of hours of volunteering.  I only have 43.5 hours, but would like to do more.  If I get a job, that may not be possible, but who knows.

I received these items:

a t-shirt, water bottle and a personalized letter from John Falkenbury, the president of USO NC

Normally, it would be volunteers setting up for events like this, so, somehow they got it all set up without us!

Mr. Falkenbury reminded us that if you give to the USO National Office, it stays there, but you can give to the USO Jacksonville and it stays right here in Jacksonville.  The NC USO is a charter of the National USO.  The Jacksonville USO is the longest operating USO in the world, operating since December of 1941!

Other USO's were opened during other wars, but closed down when the wars ended.  This one has never closed.  It's a neat old building too.  It feels like 1941 when you step inside.

In other news, my sister Sue and brother-in-law Ron are due here Saturday night!  My sister Dorcas will arrive on Tuesday afternoon. So excited!  We're going to have fun, and we're not going to talk about politics or elections AT ALL!  Hooray!

I have fun places to visit on the schedule and of course antique stores are the main ones! Hope they can handle all the "country folkiness" of Eastern North Carolina!

Flooding and Beautiful Fall Weather

I just listened to Gov. McCrory's press conference for today.  He has been very good about reporting what's happening in NC since Hurricane Matthew.  The Neuse and Tar rivers and maybe more, are still not at their highest level.  They will continue to rise until Saturday, a week after the hurricane.  The flooding of the rivers is because of the immense rain fall that happened across the state.

There are 3800 people in shelters either because they already lost their home, or they had to evacuate and are still waiting to hear if their home will be spared.  Very sad.  Again, so grateful that we are fine here.

On another note, shelling at the beaches is great after a storm or in this case a hurricane.  Elaina and I went to Fort Macon State Park  and picked up a few shells. 

Well, not just a few.  I have more than I know what to do with right now.  The beach was just covered in shells, small, medium and large.  Also many, many horseshoe crabs washed up on the beach.

Horseshoe crab

 When I say there's lots of shells, I can't even begin to explain just how many.  I can't walk barefoot (I have tender feet!) on the beach down by the water.  It's too "crunchy."   When the waves come up and cover a huge pocket of shells, they makes a crackling sound unlike anything I've heard before. 

Anyway, we had a good time picking up shells.  So sorry for the people of Eastern North Carolina who are still experiencing the effects of Hurricane Matthew.

The Day After the Storm

We ventured out in town today, finally being able to get out of the house.  We saw many trees down, traffic lights not working, and stores that are usually open on Sunday, that were closed.  I have never seen Walmart closed before until today!  I don't know what the problem is, but maybe it's electrical.  If your computer system is down, makes it kind of hard to do business these days.

There's still  emergency situations going on because the rivers are still rising.  The pictures are amazing.  People who evacuated their beachfront homes and went to higher ground, found their hotel rooms under water and not able to get home.  Rescues were being done for people who thought they were getting away from danger. Just a crazy situation.  People in towns with rivers like the Tar River and others, are having to evacuate even today.

Here's a couple of pictures of the New River near the USO.  The water level is really high, but not overflowing, at least not yet.  The USO is open tonight for their movie night for single Marines.  They get about 30 Marines in for snacks and a movie.  Gives them something to do on a Sunday evening (especially if there's no electrical power in the barracks).

 

I'm still feeling very grateful and thankful that we have been just fine here during this hurricane. Sorry for all the people who have flooding still happening in towns all over North Carolina.

Hurricane Matthew Oct. 8, 2016

5:30 a.m.   woke up to the sound of rain on my windows which means the wind is blowing

11:00 a.m.  the wind is blowing quite hard and is whistling around the house.  The rain is coming in sideways, and every whichway. The siding on the house is very noisey. Elaina said some people in Jacksonville have already lost power.  Uh oh.  She had me fill the bathtub with water in case we need it for toilets, etc.

11:25  Tornado warning given and flash flooding warning for our area.  Matthew isn't even here yet.  Watching weather channel and getting weather alerts on my phone.  We get "emergency broadcast" reports on tv.  Tornado is moving away from us now.

Later in day:  more wind, more rain.  flooding in areas of town and some power outages.  Ours went out for a little while, but came back on.  So thankful.  There's no flooding in our yards, or the street.  Rain is definitely a problem because we were already soggy from previous rains.

9:15 p.m.  Wind has picked up quite a bit.  Expecting possibility of losing power again as Matthew is due here around 10-11 p.m. Came upstairs for the night, so I don't have to climb the stairs in the dark if it happens.  Matthew is a category 1 right now.  The wind is really whistling tonight.  I think now it is sustained wind, rather than just gusts. A very different sound.

9:00 a.m. Sunday  So grateful that all is well right here. We didn't even lose power. Many, many problems all around us though, in Jacksonville, Swansboro, Topsail, New Bern, etc.  Rivers expected to continue to overflow, roads washed out, power lines down.  Fayetteville has severe flooding.  We still have gusty winds here and we will stay secure at home.  Winds can gust up to 50 miles per hour.  Elaina has many friends in the area that are sharing damage to their homes and power outages.  Even saw  on line of areas of our old neighborhood that had flooding and power outages. Again, so grateful that we fared so well.  (We have one gate that looks a little worse for wear)

I'm going to do some sewing today and continue getting ready for company in 3 weeks!

Hurricane Prep

Well, today is October 7, 2016 and we are getting ready for my first hurricane.  Matthew that is.

We have heard so many different reports about the effect it will have on us right here in Jacksonville, it's been hard to know for sure what we should do. (For me anyway)  Today's report was a little more ominous.

My wise and experienced daughter has been through hurricanes before, and it's her opinion that we should stay right where we are. We don't have to be anywhere for the next few days anyway (all weekend church services have been cancelled).  It can also be a problem if you leave the area; it's happened before that people have trouble getting back home because of closed roads, etc.  So, we are staying put.  She has to be at work on Tuesday!

I'm glad that we are in this house for this though, because the old house on Brookside had 12-15 tall trees in the backyard.  Each thunderstorm we had there was a little scary.  Here, the big trees are outside the fence of the yard.

We have been stocking up on groceries, water and gas in our cars though because there could be problems getting to those things for days, and if we lose power, we need to have food we can eat without cooking and plenty of supplies like toilet paper!  We just got home from Walmart and it's obvious everyone else is doing the same thing.

I'm sure I will be writing again probably after Sunday to report on my first hurricane experience!