Hurricane Irene - The Experience from Duck, NC

If you’ve never been in a hurricane, it is quite an experience that starts several days out and can last for weeks afterwards.  Here is my story…

Wednesday August 24^th – It’s official.  Irene is heading our way. Mandatory evacuation orders have been issued for visitors only starting at 8 am tomorrow (August 25^th).  Now if you’ve ever been on the Outer Banks in an evacuation, you know the chaos that ensues.  Mentally I’m getting prepared.  How can I avoid at all cost not being on NC12 (Duck Road) tomorrow?  Hmmmm?  My hunkering down is clearly going to start early.

Thursday August 25^th – 8 am.  And so it begins.  I make a few phone calls to find out that there is virtually no traffic anywhere.  What?  Are visitors not evacuating?  What are they thinking?  It’s mandatory for them.  I venture out.  Sure enough, very little traffic.  After contemplating what kind of hurricane prep I need to do, I decide to remove my real estate signs on my current listings.  I certainly can’t easily explain to a seller how I had 4 days advance notice and still chose to leave the sign in the yard for upcoming 80+ mile an hour winds and now the sign is sitting nicely in their living room!  No, I don’t want that conversation, I’ll go get them. 

As I’m out and about I notice lots of people in bathing suits with beach chairs walking directly to the beach access.  What are they doing?  I stop to speak to a few.  They’ve decided to spend the last day on the beach and leave sometime this afternoon.  Squeezing one more day out of their vacation ended up keeping the roads on the Outer Banks fairly clear for most of the day.  I’m ok with this decision! 

Last stop, the grocery store.  Also not backed up with people.  I pick up a basket and end up halfway through my shopping with a cart instead.  Of course I spent more than I needed.  I’ll have all day tomorrow to prepare lots of goodies to get me through the event.

Back home…cook dinner… try to sleep…on to the next day.

Friday August 26^th – 7 am.  Early evening last night the Dare County officials decided to issue a Mandatory Evacuation for all residents starting at 8 am today.  The phone starts ringing with questions of my decision to stay or go.  Threats of what could happen flow out of the mouths of family and friends.  I reassure them everything will be fine.  I’m not in a high prone flood area, my house is not going to fall down from the wind so my worst fate will be no power or satellite for a few days.  After all, they’ll be in the same boat, so why not stay?

I’m cooking, cleaning (for what I don’t know), pulling lawn furniture in for most of the day.  The real estate closing that was supposed to close Wednesday is now clear to close, but can’t with the evacuation order in place the attorney’s office and Courthouse are closed.  Blasted Irene! Hoping for next week!

I’m not looking forward to this evening. I’m such light sleeper and already know the noise of the wind and rain will keep me up most of the night.  Sure enough, around 7:30 pm the rain starts.  The wind had been picking up some all day.  That’s not a big deal, it’s the Outer Banks.  Wind is one of our things!  My biggest concern at this point is once the rain starts and keeps going for hours on end, how will I take the dogs out?  My dog Max is not affected.  He doesn’t care if it’s raining, snowing, sleeting, hailing.  Heloves to go out.  Rajah on the other hand (my boyfriend’s dog, who happens to be a 65 pound pit bull) is the biggest sissy!  He won’t go anywhere near the door when he sees rain.  This, my friends, will be a problem.  Anyway, I coax him out one last time before the downpour really begins and hope for a 10 minute break in the morning.

All night I hear the moans of Irene outside my door.  Gosh, she’s getting loud.  She clearly needs a Midol or something!  Oh wait…what’s going on with my front door?  It’s making very strange sounds….WOOOOSH!  There it goes, blowing open.  The house is 30 some years old and the doorknob doesn’t latch well sometimes.  Not always, just sometimes.  Well guess which one it is today!  Since there’s no deadbolt and for some reason it decided today to not latch, I have to build a barricade.  Hmmmm….what can I do?  Ah! Five gallon Culligan water bottles!  I place three of them in front of the door and ta-da!  An instant barricade.  The creaking the door makes against the bottles from the pressure of the wind is eerie.  Several times during the night the dogs are startled by the mysterious noise and ears up, noses sniffing for what might be.  Max (the 15 pound Pek-A-Poo) lets out a faint warning growl.  “Irene, don’t you dare come in here!” 

Saturday, August 27^th – It’s 3 am.  I can’t sleep.  Well, I still have power and miraculously still have satellite too.  How is this possible?  I think about my mom in Chesapeake and how she’s doing.  She’s only called me 32 times since Thursday to find out how I am.  I can’t complain…at least she’s still here to bug the crap out of me.  I’ll take it!  

I’m often awake at 3 am since I don’t sleep well most nights.  I’ll watch some TV.  There is no way I can watch ONE MORE MINUTE of the local news and their antics.  They are getting as bad as The Weather Channel which I’ve boycotted now for almost 2 years.  That Jim Cantore is quite a drama queen with all his gloom and doom talk. Anyway…I already know what channel the TV will be on when I hit the power button, TV Land, Channel 304 on Direct TV.  It is by far the BEST late night station.  Old re-runs of Roseanne (my favorite), Home Improvement, The Nanny, Three’s Company and even their new shows Hot In Cleveland and Happily Divorced.  This should keep me busy for a few hours. 

6 am…must have dozed off for a bit.  Hey, wait…is that what I think it is? Yes, a break in the weather.  Hurry to get dressed, get the dogs, PUSH Rajah out the door and within minutes the deed is done.  I am relieved.  I won’t have to worry about this again until at least 5 or 6 pm.  Poor dogs…they are so good but won’t get their usual outside enjoyment today.

I think I’ll have some coffee and maybe make some breakfast before we lose power.  The center of the storm isn’t far from us now.  They suspect it’ll be right over top by about 2 pm.  There is a big difference in the wind howls and rain pelting now.  Hopefully it will be over with by this evening.

Noon – Still have power AND satellite.  Somebody loves me a lot.  I hear something strange.  What is that?  Sounds like water.  Uh oh…the window in the first floor bathroom is leaking.  Damn wind driven rain!  I sop it up and put a towel down to catch the rest.  There’s nothing I can do about it now.  I walk upstairs to tell Charlie about it and hear more water.  Dang!  The dining room window is flooding water in.  Oh geez…another towel to stop the flow.  Well…there’s nothing to do now.  I guess I’ll eat some more. Irene may have been downgraded to a Category 1, but the whole experience for me is going to be a Category 5 Pounder if I keep eating all weekend.  There goes all the work from this week’s P90x workouts!  Oh well, I guess there’s always next week.

5 pm – the eye went over and is now on its way out.  Good riddanceIRENE, you bitch!  Get the hell outta here!  Ugghh, this is the “Never-Ending Storm.”  I’ve never been through a hurricane that lasted this long. Generally it’s 10 to 12 hours, then over.  We’re nearly 24 hours in and the eye has just finished its visit here.  When will this thing be over?  Oh well, more food.

We have a quick break to take the dogs out.  Hey, the neighbors are walking around.  Let’s go take a look at the ocean and see what it’s doing. We share stories and quick checks on whether everyone is ok.  It’s almost time for Wheel of Fortune.  Ice cream sounds good!

9 pm – Cabin fever having FULLY set in by now, Charlie and I decide to drive to just the end of the road to see the sound and what it’s doing.  Well, it’s not doing what it’s supposed to be doing.  About 40 feet into the end of my road is a debris-built damn that the water is swishing against.  Turn the bright lights on…HOLY SMOKES!  There’s at least 4 feet of water ON THE ROAD and whitecaps and waves crashing right next to the stop sign.  This can’t be good.  Let’s quickly get outta here before anything bad happens.

Midnight – Will this thing go away already?  The wind has shifted from the unforgiving North East to straight out of the West.  It has been that way for a few hours now.  The sounds of the house weathering the storm are different now.  The dogs and I have to get used to them.  Another night with no sleep.  That is not a complaint however because I somehow still have power and satellite!  I’ll survive just fine.  I can sleep when I’m dead!

Sunday, August 28^th – 7 am.  It stopped raining.  The winds have FINALLY died way down.  Better take the dogs out again.  It’s actually quite nice!  The emptiness of our little village is weird.  There are no sounds, it’s vacant.  Literally.  I wonder what’s happening around town.  Charlie and I make a cup of coffee and decide to go explore. 

O-M-G!  We get to the end of the road.  Well we can’t go anywhere. There’s debris from the sound and what used to be soundfront piers all over the place.  The large rocks serving as a barrier from the sound waters along NC 12 North are scattered like children’s toys all over the road.  We are definitely not going North.  A town of Duck police officer sits at the end of the rock debris to stop anyone coming south from entering the obstacle course now covering Duck Road.  Holy Smokes, look at Sunset Grill!  The soundfront deck is in the parking lot!  In a hundred pieces! Wow, this can’t be good.

We try to head south to check out Charlie’s house about a mile down the road.  Stopped by police and told there’s absolutely no way to pass through as a huge tree is down, pieces of docks and piers are scattered all over the road.  We should patiently wait an hour or so and even though there is a curfew in effect and we are supposed to be inside, they will let us down then.  The benefits of living in a small town and knowing everyone!

I start the photo taking.  Oblivious to the damage I was going to see that day.  I really want to get to my soundfront office in North Duck but I hear the road debris is just as bad and there’s no way they’re letting me through right now.  Finally we get the go ahead to travel “safely” through town.  I get the Flip Camera out and start shooting.  I’ve only had the thing a few months and have certainly not mastered it, but I’ll learn in time.  I’m stunned by the incredible amount of debris, everywhere.

Fortunately I have 2 listings within short walking distance from Charlie’s house.  His place is fine so I decide to go check them out.  Sure enough, they are fine too.  Whew!  I text the homeowners to give them much needed relief.  It’s been a few hours so I decide to take the bicycle and travel north to see if they will let me through to my office.  On the way I spot the Town Manager and Chief of Police.  They agree to let me through, but only by bicycle, not by car.  Equipped with my Flip Camera, tennis shoes and three speed bike, I head north anticipating what I will find.

So much debris.  It starts to look normal because it’s just…just everywhere! Finally I reach the office.  There’s now a landfill in the parking lot.  Hmmm… not a good look for a real estate office.  Thankfully it’s just pieces of piers and docks and kayaks and not someone’s home.  I turn the key to the front door.  Lobby is fine.  Wow, you’d think with the massive amount of sound grass in the front yard there was definitely flooding in the building.  It looks clean from here.  I open the second door to the inside, turn left and…dom-dom-dom…here it is.  Water marks, squishy carpet underneath my shoes, small branches, dirt, leaves, grass, you name it.  Certainly not our usual décor. 

I call Jimbo (president of Beach Realty) to let him know the news.  “The building is still here, the a/c is on, power is on but we got some water. Looks like about 2 to 3 inches from the water marks on the stuff in my office that was on the floor.”  He’s disappointed and also relieved to not be in wonder anymore.  The town officials aren’t going to let him through any time soon so now it’s just a matter of the “hurry up and wait” game.  I head back outside to notice the town manager and a reporter, Jason Marks from Fox 43 have arrived.  Naturally since I’m the only resident in sight I get an interview!  How exciting…I’ve never been on TV news before!  I say some really smart and interesting stuff.  Well, at least I think so and he seemed satisfied!  Then jump on my bike to head home to post my treasures (videos) for others to see.

Since this is getting to be so long.  I’ll end it here for now and finish the story of the aftermath tomorrow.  Thanks for reading!