karibritt01
Happiest when I'm planning a trip...!
- Joined
- Dec 15, 2006
- Messages
- 4,208
We had been watching the hurricane as it gained strength and buzzed up the Florida coastline. The cone predicted it to make landfall around Myrtle Beach, and continue up the coast. So we bought some batteries and food to eat in the event that we lost power, but being 2 hours from the coast, were not terribly worried. Wynn and I ate dinner, then sat down to watch Indiana Jones on TV. The storm is pretty heavy, but we are still expecting just outer bands... typical for the Raleigh area. The power goes out about 1/2 through the movie, and we were irritated to say the least. We wait awhile, and the storm is getting pretty strong, lots of wind and rain, and big lightening. It's about 10 PM at this point. Wynn, who loves storms, decides to go into the carport to watch the storm, and I go to bed. I should mention at this point that Wynn and I rent a basement apartment from my mom. My older brother lives a few miles away in a mobile home, so we are all at my mom's house. Anyway, about 11 PM there is a HUGE crash, and my mom (sleeping with me in the basement) think a tree has come right into the bedroom with us. We go flying up the stairs, and meet my brother coming from the bedroom, and Wynn coming from the carport. We ask Wynn what hit the house, and he says a tree fell across the driveway. We say "Uh, no. Something hit the house!" We go looking, and find that the 150 foot oaks in the front yard have fallen, one across the driveway and one across the peak of the roof. The only reason it didn't come further into the house is that it landed perfectly parallel on top of a brick wall. We spent the next hour moving furniture... first away from where the tree is, in case it shifts. Then to the other end of the house, as the rain is pouring through the ceiling. Then Wynn and my furniture as the downstairs is flooding from the rain coming through the roof. We spent the remaining time... finally passed around 5 AM, listening to trees falling outside and watching the house flood. We go to bed at 5 AM in a guest bedroom upstairs, only to be awakened at 7 AM by the ceilings caving in from the rain. We go outside and find the tree knocked a hole 10x40 in the roof. The ceilings collapsed in the dining room, breakfast room, kitchen, and den. The downstairs had 6 inches of standing water. We lost 22 trees in the front and back yard alone... didn't even bother to look in the woods. We had no power or water (well water) for 10 days. Wynn and I spent 13 months living in the guest room because damage to the area was so extreme, that we were that far down on the list for a contractor. All said and done, the check from the insurance company was over $130,000 for the house and stuff we lost. I get sick to my stomach everytime a storm even LOOKS like it may come this direction. By the way, the hurricane was Cat 1when the eye passed through Raleigh.
that is nothing like my two 'hurricane' stories.
Thank God no one was hurt with all that destruction around you!! (did your brother's mobile home survive?)
Have a wonderful time!
