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!