We moved to Charlotte seven years ago. The first year we were here, and not terribly long after we moved in, there were reports of an impending hurricane at the coast. I don’t remember the name of the e stirm now, because quite frankly it barely grazed us with rain as it passed.
The news outlets all recommended we remove patio furniture and anything that could go airborne from outside. We realized as we were moving heavy pieces of patio furniture to the garage we seemed to be the only house on the block doing so.
The storm came with a lot of “worst case scenario” planning ahead of it and went with barely a squeal. Joke was on us. And then we moved all the furniture back to the patio. Never to be removed again. Not in the last 6 years.
So when they were predicting Helene wayyy down in Florida with the storm trajectory heading towards Charlotte last week we pretty much continued life as usual.
The rain started on Thursday night. Don’t get me wrong, the rain was heavy and the winds picked up quick and were strong, but nothing out of the ordinary.
I wound up falling asleep on the family room couch that night watching a TV show and woke on Friday morning at 5:11a to the sounds of – that’s right – patio furniture moving. It was literally being dragged on the cement.
The winds were at about 25 mph and the rain was crazy heavy but we figured that would continue as predicted until about 11a and then we’d be good.
I took a shower and got ready for the day. Jumped on a standing Friday morning meeting and at 8:49a the lights dimmed, came back up, and then poof! No more lights. No more power at all.
It’s now nearly 24 hours later and still — no power.
We’re all safe and it doesn’t appear that we have any damage to the house, and for that we are incredibly thankful.
The pictures from around town tell the story of what happened…
And why it might take more than a few minutes to get the power reengaged.
And here I sit a town over getting Starbucks – seeing all the people annoyed at the 30-minute wait times. A first world problem if I ever saw one.
I’m glad the worst of the storm is over, I’m prayerful for the people in Florida who are in the midst of the devastation of the aftermath. I mourn with those who lost loved ones. And I am thankful for the safety of my family and close friends and the workers who are trying to fix the mess as quickly as possible.
Lesson learned though – we won’t take the future storm predictions so lightly.
Shrinking Shay 