Waiting out the "Storm of a Lifetime"
We moved to eastern North Carolina just 2 1/2 months ago and I am already experiencing my first hurricane. Hurricane Florence is heading right towards us and our county and all surrounded counties are under mandatory evacuation! My fiance had been through Hurricane Katrina back in the day and was extremely worried when we moved this close to the coast but I had assured her that hurricanes in NC are few and far between LoL, how wrong was I. Seems like my luck though, to have one the very first year we move here, I always say if it wasn't for bad luck I would have no luck at all haha.
More than a million people have been directed to evacuate already but we have decided to wait it out for many reasons, mostly because we feel we are pretty well prepared for something like this. We live about 30 miles off the coast and are pretty confident everything will be fine. Don't get me wrong we will get hit hard but we don't live in a flood zone so we only have to worry about the high winds and excessive rain, not the the surges.
We live in the country so we usually have enough food and water on hand to last us at least a few weeks to a month just to start. I have spent all week cleaning out drainage culverts up and down my street since we only have one neighbor and they already left without doing theirs so I have cleaned out more than a quarter mile. Luckily and unknowingly I have been cutting down old trees and over grown branches on my property for weeks now, so we shouldn't have any issues with debris hitting us so we just have to worry about power outages and water being turned off, but we are prepared for that too.
(We are in the purple area!)
People around here are really freaking out about this storm. I know being prepared is extremely important but this seems a bit over the top. Grocery store shelves are emptying as fast as they can fill them. Water, bread, canned foods and flashlights are pretty much non existent. I have never seen Home Depot so busy in my life! Everyone is buying plywood to cover windows, generators in case of power outages and gas cans. Every gas stations are 20+ miles of me are out of gas! It is the craziest thing ever. Good thing I already have all that stuff ;)
I know I have never been through a hurricane but I have been to war twice and I feel like that has taught me to be constantly prepared for anything, including a bad storm. Not only that, I use to be a "prepper" so I always make sure I can be self sufficient for at least a few weeks to a month before I would have to start worrying.
I wonder how many people would be screwed if there was no early warning system for a natural disaster? It is crazy to think that so many people are so unprepared for an emergency. Americans are way to complacent in life and that could one day bite us in the ass.
Anyhow, we are ready as we can be so wish us luck and watch my blog for updates throughout the the storm.
Good luck sir! It sounds like you are prepared.
Someone in NC posted this pic yesterday that said. "Even with a hurricane approaching, people would rather starve than eat vegan food" HA!
I'd eat @frogcake s
I saw this pic the other day too, I laughed so hard!
It sounds like the storm has been downgraded so hopefully you will have even less to deal with than you thought.
I'll be thinking of you and wish you luck. Sounds like you're pretty prepared.
Let's hope the predictions continue to change in the weaker direction.
Thanks @gillianpearce 😁 it is much appreciated and good to know so peoples thoughts will be with us thru all this.
We are very happy the winds died down a bit and it is now only a category 2 but we are still a bit nervous about all the rain and potential flooding around us, not so much at our house but the possibility of lower areas roads and bridges being washed out and being stranded in case of emergencies..
It sounds like you're well prepared though @moderndayhippie so just make sure you don't do anything unnecessary that could create an emergency! 😁 That's the most you can do.
Is there any update on the time it's likely to be with you?
Good luck to you sir, hopefully it's not as bad as the news anchors are making it out to be.
Im hoping the same.. I appreciate the good vibes! 😁
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Good luck! Mother nature can be brutal!
Tahts not good luck at all, stay safe and be careful
I swear if it wasn't for bad luck I would have no luck at all! LoL
totally agree with you hahaha
I am one who often says that as well
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Having gone through several hurricanes and tropical storms/depressions here in Houston, I know its a real pain to evacuate. When Ike came through we were planning to leave. We live about 28 miles from the coast. Ike was more wind than rain, but at cat 3 and possibly 4 it seemed worth leaving. However, the evacuation of the area was not going all that well, with many people stuck on the road. At some point it was clear that if we tried to evacuate, we would just ride the storm out on the road, not all that far from our house. Ike was mostly a wind event, not a rain event. It hit us at night with the eye moving right over us. I can tell you that I would not ride out a storm like that again, unless I had no choice. We were lucky. Part of our second story drywall caved in and our fence was a mess, but there was no structural damage and we were fine. As for flood zones, we are not in a flood zone, but with Harvey last year, water was half way up our front yard and the major road behind our house was flooded as well. Many of the houses that were flooded in Harvey were not in flood zones. Many had never flooded before. I've lived in my house since 2005 and seen how climate change has made the storms wetter and wetter. Houston has now had several 100 year storms in the last 5 years. It seems we get one almost every year. Keep in mind that the flood zones have not been updated to reflect climate change. My advice: if it still looks bad tomorrow AND you think you make it out to someplace safe, do so. It is always a difficult decision. As a result, I've been looking at places to move to where climate change is expected to have less impact. I'd prefer not to have to make that decision, especially with pets, kids, and boats to evacuate.
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Will be really curious to see how it goes. Be safe!
Be prepared, is about the best one can do under the circumstances. Stay safe @moderndayhippie