I'm trying not to hyperventilate. My sister, her daughter and son-in-law, and their three young daughters live in Carteret County, NC, just a kilometer or two from the shore and surrounded by tall, tall pine trees. I also have innumerable friends and cousins who live in Carteret County.
Some are leaving before the storm comes. Some are boarding up their houses and staying. My sister and our cousin told me yesterday that they are staying put, partly because they are key volunteers at the local food bank, which hands out groceries to people who qualify as needy. Those people will need assistance in the aftermath of the storm. The population of Carteret County is about 70,000. Little or none of the county's so-called land is more than 20 feet above sea level.
Forecasts are predicting Florence's "landfall" will happen somewhere along a 100-mile (160 km) section of coastline that includes the big towns of Wilmington and Jacksonville, as well as the smaller towns of Swansboro, Newport, Morehead City and Beaufort to the north. Nobody knows where the eye of the storm, with the strongest winds, will end coming ashore. All of the N.C. coast is made up of strips of sand and dunes called "barrier islands," which are not really dry land but exposed sandbars with salt marshes lying behind them, and then the mainland. People have built hundreds or thousands of houses on those sandbars.
"Biblical rains" are predicted across the state (pop. 10 million), so flooding rivers and streams are at least as big a danger as high, damaging winds, especially inland. And then there's the predicted "storm surge," as hurricane-force winds north of the storm's eye push ocean waters onto the low-lying coast. Okay, I'm hyperventilating despite myself.
Keeping my fingers crossed for the safety of your sister, her family and your cousins.
ReplyDeleteJust like Agnes in 1971 we may get a lot of rain in Northern Virginia. Time will tell.
I always forget to ask you about your back. Is it back to normal?
My back is back to normal. How's yours?
DeleteThat's good news. Mine is off and on; un coup, j'te vois, un coup j'te vois pas.
DeleteI have family in the area also. She said to watch https://www.wwaytv3.com/daily-forecast/ as opposed to CNN to get local news. Saying a prayer. I worry about the response afterward. Lieutenant General Honoré, the guy that had to come in after the Katrina disaster, has said that FEMA is poorly prepared for this. He was saying what needed to be done. I hope someone in charge was watching tv. I hear that the someone in charge watches a lot of tv.
ReplyDeleteThey did an incredible job in Puerto Rico....incredibly bad.
DeleteThanks for the WWAY link. I usually look at WCTI, the TV station in New Bern, which is closer to Morehead City.
Deletemoi aussi je croise les doigts !
ReplyDeleteMerci, Christiane. Je suis assez stressé...
DeleteI was reading news reports about the possible outcomes with this storm, and they mentioned Morehead City by name, which they don't often do. Three different scenarios were being given, depending, of course, on the direction it goes, and the strength. I had a feeling you might be blogging about this, today. I hope you'll be able to keep in touch with you sister once the storm hits!
ReplyDeleteProbably not, Judy. But now they seem to be saying that Florence will stay south of Morehead City. That doesn't mean Morehead won't have high winds and heavy rains. But maybe the worst of the storm will stay away.
DeleteNews broke last night that Homeland Security scratching around for funds they could allocate to ICE for building internment camps to house "illegals" had taken $10 million from FEMA's budget. Doesn't sound like the administration is taking this seriously enough. Lets hope we don't have another Puerto Rico snafu.
ReplyDeleteSorry to say, no surprises in all that.
Deletecan they evacuate Ken? Looks like now the storm will stall off the coast & meander around for days...ugh...and lord knows fema is worthless and now has a lot fewer dollars in its coffers.......the worls equestrian games with hundreds of million dollar horses just opened near here in Tryon so many are watching the path of this thing. We're hoping our power holds but stocking up nevertheless...
ReplyDeleteMy cousin and sister could evacuate, but they feel they have good reasons not to do so. It's probably good to stock up on food that doesn't need to be cooked, on drinking water, and on batteries.
DeleteJust heard the latest update from the National Hurricane Center. The predictions for coastal North Carolina are increasingly dire. One has to wonder whether that food bank will be left standing, much less in operation. Perhaps your sister and cousin should reconsider their decision.
ReplyDeleteReports I'm seeing here say the track of the hurricane is turning south toward Wilmington and Myrtle Beach, and then into S.C. toward Charlotte. I can't convince my family members to do anything they don't feel the need to do. All I can do is wish them good luck.
ReplyDeleteFriends who live in Newport, NC, decamped all the way to Knoxville, TN.
ReplyDeleteI heard an interview with ??? (maybe your friends?) on NPR (National Public Radio) this afternoon - who had driven as far away as Tennessee.
DeleteKen - I cannot imagine why anyone would risk one's life with these dire warnings. As you said, it is often hard when family members have made up their minds.
Mary in Oregon
Chris, my cousin Ethel and her husband Jim drove all the way to Tennessee as well. I hope they don't end up in the middle of disastrous flooding.
DeleteThinkint of you, your family and friends as the storm approaches.
ReplyDeleteYour Mom loved that food bank, it's nice that your sister is keeping up the tradition. Hopefully there will be no loss of life- that's what really matters.
ReplyDeleteTake a deep breath, Ken, do not decompose yourself. :-)
ReplyDeleteI've been watching the NOAA site all day, especially with an eye on Moorehead City. The storm seems to have moved a bit southward and is aiming more at South Carolina now. For a while, Charlotte looked as if it were dead-center, and now it's on the edge of the impact area. Winds are perhaps 35 mph lower than a couple of days ago, and it's now a Cat 3.
If your sister is working with the food bank, blessings upon her. She'll have people around her, and resources. I think a lot of the official hollering is to get the attention of tourists, the kind who think it's cool to stand in the surf as a hurricane is coming in. And when they're pulled out in an undertow, the first responders have to be at risk to save them.
Your sister and the food bank people are experienced in these storms, they're not right on the beach, and I'm sure they're taking precautions. Thanks to your blogging, she now has people all over the world sending her good wishes, which I figure counts for something, somewhere. I choose to believe that she'll be OK.
How fine the federal response will be remains to be seen, but the state of North Carolina so far is on top of the problem.