Hurricane Florence Hits

By the time Hurricane Florence made landfall in mid-September, we were all scared and bracing for the worst. That's because the whole week prior, we were led to believe it was going to be one of the biggest storms of all time to hit North Carolina.

It became hard to find bottled water, D batteries, flashlights, gas, and bags of ice. People were really freaking out and this fear was spreading. The media was predicting a category 4 or 5 storm to hit our state so the kids were out of school in preparation for the storm. The whole thing was eerie. 

We had our basket of hurricane supplies, enough food for days, and then we waited. It wasn't supposed to hit until later that night so I felt like pumpkin pancakes were necessary for breakfast... 

and these supplies were necessary for the rest of the day. 

Since they had the day off from school, the girls put all their efforts into make one gigantic fort. It was my worst nightmare because it used every pillow and blanket in our whole house, but it also impressed me because it had rooms and hallways and was kind of genius. At one point later that day, we lost Luke inside of it. :)

  

 

 

They were so worn out from fort-making that we had to relax in front of a movie before heading to bed not knowing what the night would bring.

Thank goodness when the hurricane finally made landfall, it had weakened to a category 1 storm. Raleigh, which was originally directly in the storm's path, was spared and the storm tracked farther north. We woke up to a few limbs down and that was it. We were so lucky and thankful! 

Unfortunately, Eastern NC was not so lucky. They had MAJOR flooding damage (we're talking I-40 was washed out in points) and Wilmington became a sort of island. The images coming out of that area were shocking, and the damage to our beaches was severe. It will be a long time before it's all cleaned up.

But Raleigh was spared so much so that we were able to get outside for a soggy bike ride two days after the storm. We had been cooped up inside so long we had to get out. Addie (our new bike rider) wasn't so keen on our greenway ride thanks to lots of debris and puddles, but we made it.

Goodbye Hurricane Florence.