I have lived my whole life in Kentucky. I don't know how many of my readers are aware of this geographical tidbit, but we don't get many hurricanes in Kentucky. The closest beach is about 9 hours away from where I grew up. I have now lived in NC for 5.5 years and I've experienced a few hurricanes. None have been very bad this far inland. (I live in Fayetteville the beach is an hour away) The worst was the first. Isabel in 2003 was definitely a learning experience for me. I remember thinking it wouldn't be a big deal, and since you know its coming, not that bad. Then all my friends in seminary told me how bad they are, and I began to be concerned. At the time I lived in a trailer, so I loaded up Esau and spent the hurricane day at a friend's house. I had never seen anything like the steady 40 mph wind, and it rained quite a bit, but the power stayed on all day. I went home about 6 pm after I thought the worst was over. There was no power at my house, but it was on by the time I got up the next morning.
Well, now I have a blog and I have readers all over the country. (Ok, really they are mostly in NC and KY.) So I thought I'd give play-by-play of the experience of Tropical Storm Hanna. The storm is only 65 mph now and not going to become a hurricane, but 65 mph is enough. The real problem with this experiment is that the worst part of the storm will be during the dark. But I'll take pictures of the sky, and fill you in on the events periodically.
11:00 am Friday, September 5
I had an appointment at 9:00 then decided to run some errands. This is the bottled water isle at wal-mart. Clearly people are concerned about having no power (loads of people around here are on wells.) Winds are calm, but it looks like rain.
1:30 pm - Wind is still calm. It's raining a little bit now.
2:00 pm -The sun is shining, still no wind.
2:49 pm - Raining again
5:50 pm - Winds are up to 70 mph. So it might become a hurricane after all. Here it's still pretty calm. it's raining. But no real wind to speak of.
At any rate, I gathered up my flashlights, batteries and candles just in case my power goes out for a while. The headband light works for a long time on just a couple of batteries. I can read all night if necessary. I'll cook the meat I bought today for supper, so it doesn't spoil. And everything that can blow away is fairly sheltered. The can trailer at church was emptied yesterday so it's good that I won't wake up with aluminum cans all over my yard.
7:54 pm - I just ran an errand about a mile from the house. It's raining pretty good, but still no wind to speak of. There is a lot of traffic for any rainy night, but especially one with a hurricane coming. Lots of cars at the gas station. I wouldn't want to be anywhere near the bread & milk at the grocery store. Wind is getting closer though.
11:04 pm - This is so far the boringest tropical storm ever, but it's still a way off. The rain has really started now, and it's gonna rain heavy off and on all night. There probably won't be another post until morning. When I get up we should be having sustained 35-40 mph winds, and it looks like it will be a hurricane before long. I'll take a vid with my camera for you tomorrow. Good night all.
5:40 am Saturday, September 6 - Wow, its raining. Raining hard enough to wake me up. it's very windy but I still have power. According to the TV, the eye is a county away. This looks like the last really hard band of rain. I'm going back to bed.
7:19 am - The eye is north of us now, and the wind has pretty obviously changed direction. (I get wet in places where I could stay dry before.) I shot a short movie on the camera, but it's boring. Imagine trees blowing in a 30 mph wind, and a lot of rain. I still obviously have power.
9:06 am - It has rained A LOT, but it looks like it will be over in about an hour. It moved a bit faster than they predicted, but looks like I'm clear. If you read along, thanks. One more update coming, pics of the damage at my house
11:27 am - This is my last post on Tropical Storm Hanna, detailing the wind damage at my house. I seem to still have no shingles missing from the roof. But I do have this huge limb and terrible flooding in the front yard. :) The sun is shining now, it's pretty breezy but the storm is officially over. Here's the pic of the destruction wreaked by the terrible storm. Thanks for reading.
