Post Hurricane Florence

Just sharing a few thoughts on the affects of the worst hurricane in Eastern North Carolina since 1954.

***It's hard to believe, but some people just got their power back on yesterday.  

*** This is a very common site even still. (Saw this house in person today)

If you look at the left side of this house, it has been caved in by that tree.

***There are huge black trucks with a crane, picking up fallen trees like the one above.  Seems like every time we turn a corner, there's one of these trucks. On some streets they need to stop at every house!

***This is where these trucks take the trees to be ground into sawdust    

Can't tell by this, but the mound is huge and growing.
It's spread over a large area.  Downtown Jacksonville

***ENC is so wooded, that in spring and summer it's very green and thick with leaves, so that in some places you can't see through the trees (ha ha).  But in the late fall and winter, so many leaves fall that the woods look more sparse and the trees are bare.  After this hurricane, the woods everywhere look like winter!  The kudzu is just bare vines and the trees are stripped.  Driving through Camp Lejeune today with Elaina, it looked like a giant had walked through each wooded area and grabbed handfuls of vegetation and dragged it along as he stormed through the woods.  I guess I should call the giant, Flo and not "a him."  There were 350 homes on base alone, that were damaged by Flo.

***There were reports of several tornadoes that hit during the storm.  We have seen so many fields of trees snapped in half, all facing the same direction.   I heard someone say that the principal at White Oak HS (had the most severe damage of our schools) was at the school during the hurricane and he believes it was hit by a tornado.

***Schools in Onslow County are still out next week.  There's so much damage and/or mold issues.  That's over three weeks that kids have missed out on school.  The state school authorities are making a decision on make-up weeks, or not.  Our church has two campuses; one location is one of the local high schools.  They can't meet there for church for a while, so central campus will be full!

***The Kentucky Baptist Disaster team has been continuing providing food for the Red Cross to take food out to different areas.  I helped serve lunch one day last week when people were still coming in droves through the parking lot to pick up hot food. My church continues to open their center for provisions for people who need it.  My plans is to volunteer there next weekend.

***The mosquitoes are relentless.  They are huge and vicious. I didn't have one bite all summer, until after the hurricane!  I'm also allergic to their saliva (according to google) and where they bite becomes a big, swollen welt that actually hurts. Why do they even exist?

***This has been a life-changing event for so many people.  I'm so grateful that we were safe and came home to our homes, safe and sound.

Hurricane Florence

This is one of the hardest things I've ever written about. You all know what you've seen on the news about Eastern North Carolina and Hurricane Florence, so I won't bore you with details on categories, and wind strength, etc. But this might be my longest post!

Elaina and I didn't leave for Hurricane Matthew, two years ago.  It wasn't much of a threat in our own area and there was no damage very locally to us (Our Lt Governor's home was destroyed by Matthew).  However, when we heard Florence was coming,  we paid attention.  Elaina sat in on meetings with her CO and a Marine meteorologist and got the "official" story on Florence.  She was told that Onslow County, where both Camp Lejeune and MCAS New River are located, will be an island.  That's when she decided for us, that we would leave.  (This was before the mandatory order for evacuation.)

We got a reservation at Twin Mountain Inn in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee for 3 nights.  Pigeon Forge is not my favorite place.  It's like mountain/country version of Disneyland, with lots of traffic.  It's the city Dolly Parton built.  Literally, I think.  We did drive through Smoky Mountain National Park, which is a beautiful place and I would like to go back to someday. 

Smokey Mountain Nat. Park

Smokey Mountain National Park

We watched the weather channel constantly and saw what Florence was doing to our home state.  We sat and cried and prayed.  When it was obvious we weren't going home anytime soon, Elaina searched for another hotel.  She found a Hampton Inn in Virginia that was offering a discount to evacuees, so we drove another two hours into Abingdon,Virginia.  At the hotel there were several other North Carolina license plates in the parking lot.  Elaina met a few fellow ENC's at breakfast each morning, where they talked about what was happening back home, and their plans for returning.

Because we had a very rambunctious 7 year old with us, Elaina took him to Just Jump, a trampoline park in nearby Bristol, a couple of times.  Whoever thought up those places is a genius.  Your kid sitting in front of the tv or video games all day?  Take them to a trampoline park!  It will be hard getting them to leave.

We stayed in Virginia until Tuesday morning.  Because of all the road and highway closures, it was not a simple task figuring out how to go home.  But Elaina trusted what she heard from the base about how to get home.  A 7 hour trip took  about 10 or 11 hours to get home due to traffic and changes in roads.  The last highway we were on, highway 70 in NC, was starting to flood, but we were fine.  The bridge hadn't closed at the time we came through.  It has since flooded (The Neuse River) and the road was closed.  I read today it will continue to be closed for a while longer.

The bridge crossing the Neuse on our way home.
 You can see the water level
reaching almost to the bridge

One of hundreds of lineman come to help;
many from out of state

Highway 70 flooding beginning.
This is a mail box for a business
along side the road

This is how ENC's think of Lineman

The hard part now, is seeing all the devastation here that Florence brought.  Trees down in yards and in the woods everywhere. People's homes destroyed either by flood or downed trees. People clearing out their homes and putting their belongings out in front waiting for trash pick up.  Sometimes whole streets are lined with home "debris."  In Elaina's neighborhood there is a trailer park where one huge tree fell across two trailers and split them both in half.  (We're assuming no one was home, but?)

This scene can be seen all over

I can't express how hard this has been to watch happening.  We were fine and were inconvenienced for a while, but some people have lost everything they had.  There's no words for how we hurt for our Eastern North Carolina neighbors.

This is an upscale neighborhood but can you imagine what
the poor neighborhoods look like?

Once we got home we found that gas is not available everywhere, grocery stores only have minimal items, many, many people still don't have power.  ( With road closures, trucks can't get in to deliver.)  Stores like Walmart were letting people in 5-10 at a time to shop.  Meat and milk was scarce.  (Neither of us had any damage to our homes, and even though power was lost during the storm, we both had power when we got home. So, contents of refrigerator?  Out to the trash bin.)

One tree fell on my building

Minor damage to my building

Authorities had warned evacuees to come back with cash, groceries bought elsewhere, and a full tank of gas.  (My car was left here at home and I was very low on gas.  I haven't been able to fill up yet)

Now, the clean up has begun, and the handing out of supplies for those who have lost everything.  Our church, Catalyst, is hosting the Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief team, where they are feeding thousands of people each day, and also providing supplies like toiletries, cleaning supplies, diapers, etc.   Many many churches are doing the same and many businesses are also opening their doors to hand out free items that people need.  Some Walmarts are giving out free water and ice in the parking lot.  Just come and get what you need!  Restaurants are feeding residents and lineman and first responders for free.  It's amazing to see people stepping up to help their fellow Eastern Carolinians.

By the way, school has been out since the 11th, and still out another week.  So many schools were damaged, and staff have their own homes to deal with.  Elaina's 7 yr old's day care was damaged, but they will be open by Monday, thank goodness.

Yes, I love Eastern North Carolina, and maybe even more so now.  Thanks for reading.  I'm going to try and add some photos.  

Pray for Eastern North Carolina!

Catalyst Church Sunday the 23rd

This will be on-going probably for weeks.

NC and its Festivals

September is here and I am so ready for Fall!  We have had a very hot, humid summer with lots and lots of rain.  I know it will be a while before we actually feel FALL weather, but at least we know it's coming!

(I may have written about these things before, but I don't care!  It came up tonight...)

I couldn't find anything good to watch on TV tonight, so I settled on The Andy Griffith show.  The show was based on Andy's hometown of Mount Airy, NC.  This is from Mount Airy's website:

"MOUNTAINS. MUSIC. MAYBERRY. MERLOT. Mayberry RFD icon Andy Griffith grew up in Mount Airy, North Carolina, and it's no coincidence that a stroll down Mount Airy's Main Street reminds people of the town of Mayberry from The Andy Griffith Show. In addition to Mayberry RFD and Andy Griffith, visitors find that Mount Airy, North Carolina is a great jumping off point for exploring the Yadkin Valley wine region, the breathtaking Blue Ridge Parkway, the stunning pinnacle of Pilot Mountain, or the twangy sound of bluegrass and old-time music. Whatever your passion, we invite you to step back to a simpler time when you visit Andy Griffith's hometown of Mount Airy, North Carolina—affectionately known as Mayberry RFD."

The city has "Mayberry Days" when the whole town celebrates their Mayberry history, with parades, etc.  

                                   http://surryarts.org/mayberrydays/index.html

Collards

While watching the show tonight, there was an ad for another of North Carolina's festivals.  This one is in the town of Ayden.  Are you ready for it?  It's the Collard Festival!  There's even a mascot named Colleen Collard.  

It has started this week and continues through Sunday.   A whole week of celebrating collards and collard greens!    We won't be going to this.  It's about an hour and a half northwest of us.           

Colleen Collard

https://www.aydencollardfestival.com/

It makes me smile (and giggle), and I'm not making fun of it;  I love it.  There's so much agriculture here and people are proud of it and really enjoy celebrating it.  Any excuse for a parade and get-together with your neighbors for a party!

Elaina and I went to a strawberry festival in Burgaw once and someday I want to go to the Blueberry Festival.  If something is grown here, you can be sure there's a festival for it.  There's also none agriculture festivals:  Morehead City has a seafood festival, and a chocolate festival.  Swansboro has the Mullet festival (a fish) and Pirate Fest. There's Scotish festivals, Lumbee Indian festival, and so on.

I tried to find a single list of NC festivals and there are so many, all other the state, I couldn't find just one list.

Elaina and I have not attended the Jacksonville Christmas parade before, but since she has a 7 year old boy now, I think we'll probably go this year!

I know I've said it many times here, but I love North Carolina and the small town feel almost everywhere, even when the towns are not so small.

Thanks for reading my North Carolina journal!