Hurricane Matthew

Hilton Head still isn't ready to go back to as the retirement development where I care for my mom won't be habitable for a couple of days. Staying in Orangeburg, S.C until we can leave. Could be worse. I fear my little Northern Freight trailer, filled with tools and books might have suffered. My Civic is at the airport where I rented an suv....

Made it home. The 8 hour drive took us 14.5 hours. The Lumber river flooded over the bridge and they closed 74. Tried four or five other routes only to end up at blocked roads. Finally, headed south into SC and snuck up on home from the south. It was funny seeing South of the Border with no power as we went by it. I-95 and I-40 both have portions closed. The NC DOT website for road status sucks ass, especially when using from a phone. Got everything unloaded. Got to pack since I have to head for the airport in a few hours.

We were 71 miles from home when we were stopped. Then it took about 6.5 hours to get home from that point.

Matthew update: The GRM offices are still closed. We're all telecommuting.

I had a round the state trip today. Charleston, Florence, Conway, back home.

It was all great on the way out. Lots of trees down, lot's of water, but the roads were clear. The Conway to Goose Creek stretch, ended up being closed at the Black River. That cost me a 30+ mile detour to get to the next bridge upstream.

There are still a lot of areas without power. I came across a CSX crew that was setting up generators at every grade crossing to power the signals and arms. Some of those are in the middle of nowhere. If they still have all the generators at the end, it will be a miracle.

The sister in laws made it through without too much damage other than some roof leaks. My sister made it back to Beaufort and found her little trailer survived without damage.

One thing that has been bugging me for the last couple days. A national news reporter was calling it hurricane Matthews, even had it spelled Matthews on the TV.

So is it Matthew or Matthews?

Matthew.

It was interesting the way the damage was laid out. You could drive for miles and everything would look normal. Then the next mile or three would look like a war zone. One house with no damage, the next door neighbor with three trees on the house. Kind of bizarre.

In reply to Toyman01:

Sounds more like tornado damage, oddly.

The thing that is still in the news are the reservoirs and their current states (or lack thereof).

During calmer parts you can watch the wind gusts travel by watching the trees. The gusts can follow a very narrow path.

MrJoshua wrote: During calmer parts you can watch the wind gusts travel by watching the trees. The gusts can follow a very narrow path.

I've noticed that about the Katrina damage, some of which you can still see. There's an area along I-10 in the Stennis Space Center buffer zone where the trees were apparently flattened in about a 1/4-mile wide swath about as far as you can see in either direction.

My parents, aunt, and daughter worked for 6 days on the yard at Cypress Trees, to prepare it for a wedding. They pulled it off.

From this last Saturday.

To this, this Saturday.

8 acres of live oaks cleaned up after. Not to mention the two huge water oaks they removed as well. That's the work of two 76 year olds, my 70 year old aunt, and my 24 year old daughter. The debris pile is 50+ feet long, 30 feet wide and 12 feet tall. I have vowed to never say I feel old until I actually am.

We made some progress unearthing the boat shed this weekend.

From this.

To this.

The Key West was the first to be dug out. Total damage, none. It didn't even tear the boat cover. It will have to sit outside until I build another shed.

The hole it was hiding in.

The other two boats are both badly damaged. I'll dig them out in the next couple of weeks. There is no hurry at this point.

Some other random pictures. SCCA friend helping out, and my father with the ever present hat.

Yes, the water oaks were huge. The bottom 8' of the trunks and a huge piece of pecan, sitting in front of the firewood pile.

Heavy machinery is a good thing. The pecan trunk. We have a friend of the family with a saw mill. There might be some interesting woodworking in the future, assuming his mill will handle the weight.

The burn pile.

That's the last of the rush work, we'll spend the next year cutting up trees and cleaning up the debris.

I finished cleaning up my yard yesterday. Nothing like tou had to clean up though. Our mail looks like it was mostly back on Saturday a week after the storm. They apparently get it from Charlotte and there is still a medd around Lumberton. I have a few live oaks, but they are all standing still. Lots of acorns on the ground though.