Anyone else in NC/SC? How prepared were you for this hurricane?

[breathemusic]

My Brother and his wife live just north of Wilmington, NC in a house with friends. They all evacuated so they're up here in this area, but the power had already gone out by the time he and his wife left. Sounds like they're going to be coming home to a LOT of spoiled food in the fridge and deep freeze that will have to get tossed. My father lives in downtown Wilmington but he refused to evacuate. It sounds like he's handling it just fine, but I'm not surprised. He's resourceful and was messing with ways to be able to power small necessities for a while, even his sump pump. Though from what I hear the house is ok, but trees are down, and he saw that a neighbor house had a whole section of shingles ripped off. My brother was also showing me pics that he was seeing online from other locals where massive sand dunes were washed away, things like that. And there's still enough flooding that many roads aren't passable. I don't think they could actually get home right now even if they wanted to. But it sounds like power is likely to off for another week or so.

[amastewa93]

My Brother and his wife live just north of Wilmington, NC in a house with friends. They all evacuated so they're up here in this area, but the power had already gone out by the time he and his wife left......

And there's still enough flooding that many roads aren't passable. I don't think they could actually get home right now even if they wanted to. But it sounds like power is likely to off for another week or so.

I am SO glad they evacuated. Many of my friends live out that way and were able to evacuate to family locally or otherwise. I'm hoping they're able to get home soon. I know how rough it has been for many people. I'm thankful we got by so easy, all things considered.

[Like2Plan]

DS is inland about 100 miles, but they received so much wind and rain over the past few days! There are trees and power lines down and flooding. His power is still out, but most of his associates have
had their power restored.
I think they estimate the rivers will crest tomorrow afternoon so they still don't know the extent of the flooding, yet.
Lots of roads are closed. A couple of interstates are closed.
I95 is closed between Rocky MOunt and south of Dunn and then between Fayetteville and Lumberton due to flooding. There are directions on the NC DOT site for avoiding NC altogether. https://tims.ncdot.gov/tims/
I'm not sure when the roads will reopen.

[kork13]

I know that I'm going to sound heartless & contrarian & condescending, but I'm always disgusted by the lack of preparation & utter blindness of Americans that unquestionably live inside of hurricane zones. Storms like this are never a surprise. You always know at least 3-5 days in advance that you're being threatened by a hurricane, often more than a week ahead. If you live within 150-200 miles of the coastline (typical reach of a hurricane) and aren't prepared at all for what could happen, you're simply being irresponsible & reckless. It's no secret that the east coast gets hit (or takes a glancing blow) by at least 3-5 hurricanes in an average year. There's no reason to expect that you won't be impacted by a hurricane at least once every couple years.
I grew up on Guam, where typhoons hit the island 5-12 times a year. The majority acknowledge that fact, and >80% of homes are made of concrete or cinder block. The remainder are wood/aluminum, knowing that the next storm would destroy it, for them to take advantage of the FEMA money that inevitably rolls in (different rant). But everyone knows that you need to keep a week or two worth of food/water/fuel available & on hand (or at least storage capacity to quickly stock it up in the 1-2 weeks ahead of a storm). That means plenty of dry/can goods, cooking & auto fuel (full plus an extra tank), and ½-1gal/day/person of fresh water, plus a bathtub or two full of toilet flushing water.
All of this is what I learned & could spout off by the time I was 8 y/o. None of it is difficult or complicated. If you aren't willing/able to take there simple precautions, then you need to evacuate & get out of the way. Drive inland for a short family vacation, or fly out to see family or something.
There's really no reason to be unprepared for these hurricanes. BTW... Flood insurance anyone? Yeah... It's a needful rider for your homeowners/renter's policy, unless you're definitely well above the flood plain.
/soapbox

[amastewa93]

DS is inland about 100 miles, but they received so much wind and rain over the past few days! There are trees and power lines down and flooding. His power is still out, but most of his associates have
had their power restored.
I think they estimate the rivers will crest tomorrow afternoon so they still don't know the extent of the flooding, yet.
Lots of roads are closed. A couple of interstates are closed.
I95 is closed between Rocky MOunt and south of Dunn and then between Fayetteville and Lumberton due to flooding. There are directions on the NC DOT site for avoiding NC altogether. https://tims.ncdot.gov/tims/
I'm not sure when the roads will reopen.

We are inland about 226 miles or so and still have roads closed this morning. I'm not surprised the DOT is instructing people around the state... I feel for those closer to the coast. Many of them are missing work and will be coming home to damaged property. I'm hoping your family fairs well when they return home!

[disneysteve]

I know that I'm going to sound heartless & contrarian & condescending, but I'm always disgusted by the lack of preparation & utter blindness of Americans that unquestionably live inside of hurricane zones. Storms like this are never a surprise. You always know at least 3-5 days in advance that you're being threatened by a hurricane, often more than a week ahead.

I said the same thing about the deaths. Most of them are due to people ignoring warnings, not evacuating, trying to drive through standing water and getting swept away, etc.

[bjl584]

I need to confess something to you guys...I'm "that guy", we have some MREs and water in our closet just in case something like that happens.

Nothing wrong with being prepared for storms and other situations.
As long as you're not approaching "prepper" status and digging a bomb shelter out back and filling it with gold bars and weapons.

[james.hendrickson]

Nothing wrong with being prepared for storms and other situations.
As long as you're not approaching "prepper" status and digging a bomb shelter out back and filling it with gold bars and weapons.

Its like a case of meals and maybe a couple of gallons of drinking water.

[msomnipotent]

Nothing wrong with being prepared for storms and other situations.
As long as you're not approaching "prepper" status and digging a bomb shelter out back and filling it with gold bars and weapons.

That would be a survivalist. I'm not even a prepper, more like a planner. I don't have a lot of extra gear because my main concern is tornadoes, so my stuff would be blown away.

I was really surprised to see so many people on the news loading up on perishables like bread and things that need to be refrigerated. I thought everyone assumed the power would go out, and I doubt that many people had generators at home. People would be surprised at how many common household items can be of use in an emergency, especially if you are already into camping. I keep extra coffee filters even though I use a permanent one, and a small bottle of chlorine even though I don't bleach many clothes, just to be able to filter water if I had to.

[Tabs]

I had already made plans to go visit a buddy of mine, and out of pure coincidence, the hurricane also was expected to hit our area in that same weekend. So, I was going to "evacuate" anyway, with or without the hurricane.

The only thing that changed my plans was that I left about 12 hours early, just to be on the safe side, and not get caught in some rain storm that would slow down traffic or perhaps increase the risk on the road.

I was also bummed to find out, after the fact, that some hotels that I was staying in the new area offered free night stays for hurricane evacuees. I had already booked and paid for the night days prior so....

[amastewa93]

I was also bummed to find out, after the fact, that some hotels that I was staying in the new area offered free night stays for hurricane evacuees. I had already booked and paid for the night days prior so....

What a bummer! You may have been able to save a little cash. I am glad to hear you weren't too heavily impacted though. We were lucky here.