Total Destruction

 

This weekend was the worst weekend of my life…and that’s saying something. I’m mostly writing this down to get it out of my head.

My Mom and Step Dad live on the Pamlico Sound in North Carolina on a tiny island called Goose Creek Island in a tiny town called Lowland.
 

 

Unfortunately, they chose to stay and wait out Hurricane Irene. 

On Friday night things were getting bad but my Step Dad said everything looked worse than it was on the radar. I went to sleep at around 10PM and checked the NOAA website periodically for updates.

I woke up at 7AM on Saturday morning and called my mom to check in. She said they lost power but had internet and satellite through the generator. Things were windy and a tree fell on their back porch, but they didn’t think it’d get much worse.

I tuned into the weather channel around 7:30 to keep a watchful eye on things. At 8AM the weather channel reports 3 foot surge on the west side of the Pamlico Sound. 

My Mom calls me at 8:25AM and tells me the water is up to the bottom of my Step Dad’s truck.
 

I start to get really worried at this point. She calls me again at 9:29AM and tells me the water is up to the top of the truck and now it’s in the living room up to their ankles. She’s not sure what they’re going to do, they don’t have a second floor they can head up to at this point. I tell my Mom to go to the attic and I’d try to call someone for help.

At 9:45AM I call the National Coast Guard. I had recalled there being a base about 10 minutes from my Mom’s house in Hobucken, NC. I was hoping they kept a few emergency responders there. My Mom calls me while I’m on the phone and I connect them via a 3-way conversation on my phone. My Mom said the water is rising about 2-3 inches every few minutes. The coast guard said they’ll try to get responders out to them but it’s a long shot because of the severity of the storm. They plan to take to the rafters in the attic if things get much worse.

At 10:30AM my mom calls me to tell me the sewage line broke in the house and raw sewage is backing up into the house. She said the smell was so bad she was going to puke.

At 11:30AM the water was still rising and it’s up to their knees.

The coast guard calls me again and says they can’t find anyone to go out to them, and that they’re going to dispatch to all surrounding rescues. The officer told me to call around 5PM if I don’t hear anything from the Guard by that time to see what the status is on the rescue ops going out to them.

At 1:30PM my Step Dad calls to tell me the water is still at their knees and slowly rising, but that he thinks it’s starting to slow down. I was also told not to call again because their cell phones were close to dead.

I call the coast guard at 5:30PM and ask on the status of the rescue operations. I was told it had to be handed over to local officials and to call a certain number.

I call the number at 6:00PM and it’s dead.

I don’t hear from my Mom or Step Dad for the rest of the night.

Finally, Sunday at 8:30AM my Mom calls to say they were rescued by people on ATV’s and that they were safe at my step grandma’s house. The house was a total loss and so was their cars. The generators were low on gas at this point so they said they would charge their phones and call me when they could.

I’ve heard bits and pieces from various family members that they’re okay and they’re just trying to reserve cell power at this point. The county put out a notice that all 13,000 residents are without power and will be until the power company can assess damage and get past fallen trees. The county is under a water conservation and water boil mandate and food, water, and ice will be rationed out to the residents as soon as rescue can get to them.

I’m happy they’re okay but I’m also exhausted from worry. On top of it all, the rest of my family lives in the hudson valley and they’re all experiencing massive flooding and power outages.