Behind One Mom’s Decision to Stay During Hurricane Florence

Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

Although I knew there was a hurricane brewing out in the Atlantic Ocean, I walked into work at Anderson Elementary on Monday, September 10th ready for a normal day. Even though there was a lot of work to be done as testing was coming, a lot of talk was about the storm. Everyone was asking whether it was wise to stay. Several of our staff members reside at the beach and they feared they would be evacuated. Others simply feared the worst as the storm was strengthening by the hour and had its sights set on Wilmington.

By 11 am, the school system had made a decision and sent out notice that school would be cancelled the rest of the week. I called my husband and told him it was time to make an evacuation plan. (The storm had strengthened to a Category 4 at the time and I was NOT staying for that!) I decided we should head to the western part of NC and booked a condo at Sugar Mountain that was pet-friendly. With a daughter, two dogs and a cat, we knew accommodations would be hard. I felt a great sense of relief after making the reservation. It was settled: we were going to the mountains to avoid the wrath of this storm.

When I arrived home, my husband and I discussed the decision to leave. He reminded me that the storm was still a few days out and that the path could change. He also reminded me of what happened in 1999 when we left the area for Hurricane Floyd. We had a very hard time returning to the area due to flooded roads. I decided we’d make up our minds by Wednesday morning.

So on Tuesday, I spent the day preparing to stay, just in case. I bought plenty of non-perishable foods and grillable items. I did all the laundry in the house so that we’d have no smelly laundry if we lost power. Then, I spent a lot of time watching the news and getting more upset about the storm. I knew that my husband wanted to stay, but I was scared. I thought of my daughter and wanted to take her away from a potentially traumatizing situation. My husband said that now he wanted us to evacuate simply because he couldn’t stand seeing me so tense. I was relieved to hear this but we still didn’t have a final decision.

Then Wednesday came. I canceled the reservation in the mountains.

Forecasters predicted the hurricane was going to move right across the state and potentially cause flooding and mudslides in the area we thought was our safe getaway! So we thought about my in-law’s house in Henderson, NC. But before we packed up the car and headed out, we decided to check coverage. When the news anchor announced that the storm had weakened a bit and was now a Category 2, we made the final decision to stay. Without reliable evacuation plans, we felt we would be safer in our home if we did thorough preparation.

The Waiting Is the Hardest Part

Upon deciding to stay, I worked to make sure the house as secure as possible. With large bay windows in two rooms that look out into our partially wooded backyard, I feared limbs from trees. My husband boarded up the windows and we involved our daughter by allowing her to paint messages on the plywood coverings.

After securing the house as best we could, I walked around making videos of all of our belongings. I prayed that I would never have to use these, but also understood that we didn’t really know what was coming. My husband continued his preparations as well, making sure our generator worked and purchasing enough gas to power it for a few days.

We turned the thermostat down to about 64 degrees so the house would be cool when we lost power and within an hour, we all had changed into long pants and long sleeve shirts to stay warm inside!

The rest of the day, we resolutely kept an eye on the news as Hurricane Florence continued to make a very slow approach to the North Carolina coast. She was moving about 5 mph but it looked like a direct hit to our city.

On Thursday morning it was windy but there was no rain yet. We decided to take our dogs for a walk down to the community dock and enjoy this “calm before the storm.” The sky looked ominous but we decided to enjoy family time together outside. Seeing my family smile and laugh was healing. As a family and as individuals, our stress levels were high as we tracked Florence and prepared.

Upon returning to the house, my daughter and I baked muffins, knowing this activity wouldn’t be an option soon when the power went out. Only a few of our neighbors were staying for the storm and we delivered some muffins to them. The quiet of the street was eerie. 

The waiting continued. We stay tuned to television coverage. By nightfall, reports of flooding in New Bern came in. Water pouring into the streets of New Bern was heartbreaking (we had been there less than 2 months ago). And my anxiety began to build again.

Song of the Wind

By 11:00 pm the wind was howling as I laid down in bed. The sound of the Hardi Plank siding vibrating in the wind was horrible. I knew I couldn’t sleep with that endless banging. I relocated to the guest room, which was situated differently and blocked the wind. My daughter was sleeping in the guest room so we could all be on the same floor.

I dozed for a few hours but at 4:00 am the sound of the wind was terrifying. My husband was up as well and we sat together on the couch. While the storm had been downgraded to a Category 1, we knew wind speeds could still reach 95 mph. I felt certain we were experiencing some of those high winds. By 5:00 am the power went out, leaving us in complete darkness. We were unable to do anything but sit, listening to the storm as we waited for daybreak.

At 7:00 am, our daughter came into the living room. Hearing the wind outside, she looked at us and said, simply, “I’m scared.” The three of us huddled together on the couch as we watched the outside darkness turn to light through cracks in our boarded windows.

The gusts continued along with the rain for several hours. Trees bowed down in the wind. Smaller trees seemed to touch the ground as they gave in to the wind. We saw some trees snap with the force of the wind and others simply up-root as the wet ground seemed to open up and allow entire root systems to expose themselves. A large pine tree menacingly swayed and threatened to snap in the wind, and we moved to the other side of our house, realizing it wouldn’t take much for the pine to fall through our home.

Eye of the Storm

At 3:00 pm, the eye of the storm was passing over. We slowly emerged from our home to take walk the dogs and survey the neighborhood. damage. We were walking in a sea of green. Trees, limbs and leaves were everywhere.

We took pictures for neighbors that had evacuated. One neighbor had half a tree on their roof; one neighbor’s truck was crushed by a tree. But the most alarming and urgent issue were the three trees now blocking the entrance to our neighborhood.

My husband immediately began to clear the trees from the road, this was the path for first responders and neighbors that had evacuated but stayed local. Soon, we went to survey the damage on my neighbor’s roof. Standing inside, we could see the hole was large enough to allow rain to pour into their home. My husband and some other community members who stayed removed the tree and tarped the roof, hoping to limit further damage.

It was scary to see my husband and friends working on a slick roof, wrestling tree limbs. But I also felt proud of what he was willing to do to help our neighbors and friends.

I also felt grateful that our home, with my family inside, had fared as well as it did. We had prepared for the worst, but made it through, ready to help others.

Come Together

The rain bands continued to come and go as the storm continued to hang out right over us. We didn’t have much to offer, but we invited neighbors over for food. Grilled fish and green beans from a can never tasted so good!

Our neighborhood is small, with only fifteen homes, and four families stayed for the hurricane. We became a tight-knit community filled with camaraderie. We looked out for each other and our neighbors who had evacuated. When it was safe to do so and for those that had left a key behind, we tarped more roofs, cleaned out refrigerators and freezers, and stayed in constant contact via e-mail and text messages.

One of our neighbors that stayed owns a whole house generator. They hosted breakfast and dinner for four days straight and even offered up their guest rooms for anyone that wanted a good, cool night’s sleep. Not only did we enjoy the warm food and cool air, we enjoyed the fellowship.

It was odd, considering the community is small, but prior to the storm we had never even formally met these neighbors! Of course, now we consider them good friends.

The Aftermath

Hurricane Florence blew out of our area less than a week ago, but we are still feeling the effects of her presence, and we will for some time.

The water I can see from my home is incredibly high. Trees are down all over and roof tarps flutter.

But as our neighbors have returned, our little area is finding a new normal. We got power back after six days without. We are having a neighborhood gathering this afternoon and I look forward to seeing all my neighbors and hugging them. I am grateful we were here to help, despite the fear of listening to the wind in the dark. And I also realize how lucky we are.

In my community, we are all so lucky to have each other and thankful that we were spared some of the terrible effects that this storm brought to others. I know we will continue our efforts to help others that were devastated by this storm.

We are a strong community and state and we will not only survive but thrive in the wake of this storm.