Hurricane Matthew

We all watch the weather closely in Hurricane season.  Hurricane Matthew looked like he was going to impact us! All the way from Florida to North Carolina.   Our governor, Nikki Haley, called a press conference on Tuesday, October 4.  She said it was time to prepare. Matthew was large and at that point a Category 4, sitting south of Florida.  She canceled school for the rest of the week.  It was time to start evacuating the coast. Mandatory evacuation orders for issued.  All lanes of I-26 were all going to go west at 3pm Wednesday.  Time to pack up and get out of town if you were in an evacuation zone.  There were evacuation zones around our house, but we were not in a mandatory zone.  We were watching Matthew very closely.  He was weakening as he worked his way up the coast.   He was still strong enough though!
We started to prepare. Mark was off work from Wednesday too.  Boeing was also not taking any chances.  Everything was taken in that we could take in. All the yard art. Mark cut the roses back and took in the trellises.

Tiki Tim stayed outside. He weighs enough that we were  sure he could not be knocked over.

Scout liked the empty screen porch



We cleaned up and brought in all we could and then we waited.  Matthew was taking his time coming up the coast.

Watching what was happening in Haiti and then in Florida.  This was nothing to mess around with.  We made chili and spaghetti sauce and a couple pans of brownies.  Ready for the power to go out.

On Friday morning, we filled up the big bathtub downstairs.  We filled all the pitchers with water.
We were as ready as we were going to be.

We started to feel the effects of the storm.  I did not get much sleep that night.  The rain was lashing the house, but it was not really awful.

Matthew had weakened to a category 2, category 1.  He was still going to do some damage.
The rain and wind continued. The worst was yet to come.  After the eye passed 10 miles off the coast, we got strong winds, sustained winds of over 60 miles an hour.

In a break in the wind, we went out on the porch to see what has happening. We heard trees snapping. One small tree in our neighbors yard snapped, and a tree in the back yard a couple houses away went down.  So far we still had power.

We did not stay out long, just long enough for a picture and to say we had been out in a Hurricane.

Then the wind stopped and the rain stopped.  Time to assess all the damage. Mark went and walked around the neighborhood.

This was a beautiful tree.  This was the biggest tree that came down in the neighborhood, it was up in the townhome section.

Not much debris on the bike path

Branch Creek was very high, and it did spill over it's banks in places.

The pond in the center of the neighborhood. It did not spill it's banks, even though it was much higher than normal.

looking down our street

This was our only damage

We were very very lucky.   We never lost power!