Good morning Everyone!

To those of you from North Carolina northwards who have been coping with Hurricane Irene and its aftermath, the thoughts and prayers of many Alabamians (including me) are with you.  I hope the flooding will be much less severe than the experts currently think it will be.

Hurricane Irene when it was over the Bahamas

Sitting through a hurricane, even inland, is never any fun, and the days following the hurricane, at least until the power comes back on, can be very long also.  I found that, even though my brain knew nothing would happen, I still would flip light switches on as I walked into rooms.  I will pass along this tip from my sister:  almost everything can be cooked on a grill, and you might as well go ahead and throw a huge block party once you reach the point where everyone’s meat has thawed in the freezer to the point of no return.  (She lives in Huntsville, where the power was out for over a week following the terrible tornado outbreak in April. )  Also, coffee can be brewed in water you bring to a boil over a grill.  (Very important tip!)

Campfire Coffee Pot

I have been through two hurricanes, both inland, the most recent of which was Hurricane Opal.  Hurricane Opal made landfall on the Gulf Coast as a Category 4 hurricane, and swept on up through the State of Alabama.  At the time, we lived in a small town about five hours driving time away from the Gulf; Opal was still a Category 1 hurricane when it swept through our area.

Satellite view of Hurricane Opal

I don’t know why, but the morning before Hurricane Opal arrived, I happened to catch a weather report and pay attention to it.  (Living that far away from the coast, hurricanes were something we made a note of but they normally didn’t impact us.)  The weather people were saying that this storm was going to be different, and that even in our area, homeowners needed to bring in loose objects, such as lawn chairs and potted plants, which the wind could use as projectiles once the hurricane arrived.  So for the first (and so far last) time ever, I went home at lunch and brought every single potted plant and lawn chair in the house, and got Mark, when he got home, to tie down the porch swing and table.  Then we waited.

Shadow and Woof

 Really, I should say, then I waited, as Mark and both of my faithful protectors at the time, our dogs Shadow and Woof, were fast asleep by 9.  I didn’t get to sleep, and then at 10, before there was any wind or rain, the power went off.  About an hour later, the rain started to pour down.  I started to hear an unusual sound, so I went to check on it, and it turned out that the rain was leaking into the house through the free-standing fireplace we had at the time.  (This was the first house we had ever bought.)  I pulled out towels and cups to catch the rain, and then went back to bed.  I never really did get much sleep; I can remember looking out the bedroom window watching the pine trees outside bending to the point that their tops were horizontal to the ground, and hearing a persistent thumping somewhere against what I thought was the house.  I also remember wondering if the huge sycamore tree we had at the side of the house would hold out.  The dogs never did wake up.  Mark says he did and watched the trees for a while too, but neither one of us said anything. 

Sound sleepers!

Morning finally came, as it always does, and the storm had already blown through.  (At least one saving grace of Opal was that it was a fast mover.)  There was a lot of damage around town; oaks, especially, had been blown over onto houses, as well as many other kinds of trees.  We were fortunate; not only did the sycamore tree stay standing tall, but the thumping turned out to be our tied down outdoor table, which had managed to flip itself over the deck rail during the night.  The thumping was the sound of the table hitting the deck, not the house.  The deck survived just fine.  We were without power for probably five days, but it could have been so much worse.  (I will admit, however, that by day three I was starting to get really frustrated.)  Areas along the gulf, like Panama City Destin, Florida suffered so much more damage.  It would be interesting to know what Kayla had to say about all of it, but Hurricane Opal came through before she was born.  Given her fear of thunderstorms, if she had been there, I don’t know if we ever would have been able to get that child to go to sleep again! 

A boat washed ashore by Hurricane Opal along the coast

So that, y’all, is my big hurricane story.  I hope I never have another one to tell, but you never know.  Have any of you ever been involved in severe weather before or were in Irene this time?  I would love to hear some of your stories if you have time to share. 

Have a great day everyone! 

Nancy