Florence

It is Wednesday night, September 12 and I’m at home, along with multiple others in their homes, anxiously awaiting Hurricane Florence. It is scheduled to hit land tomorrow and, according to all news reports, is expected to pretty much decimate the coastline of North Carolina and much territory inland from days of torrential rains and flooding rivers. I am surprisingly at peace. I have prayed for the sparing of lives more than anything because property can, in most cases, be replaced. It’s odd awaiting a hurricane. Although we are hours and hours from the coast, “they” are predicting record flooding even in my home town! For 3 days now, we have been told to stock up on water and food supplies (at least 3 days worth, which I have not done) and be prepared for flooding of low areas and power outages. (The Doer did spend 2 hours in line to buy a generator!) It’s almost surreal to watch the hurricane develop slowly over many days and listen to the weather experts predict virtually everything there is to know about this storm except the actual outcome of it. So how should I act? I’ve been going about my normal activities as I do every day, yet there is this looming monster out in the ocean creeping its way landward hour by hour. Prayer is the only thing I can do.

We are scheduled to go to Ocracoke (which is in its path) in a couple of weeks for our now annual fall retreat at 10 Cuttin Sage. I have no idea at this moment if there will be anything left of our cottage, or even if the island will be accessible by road or ferry by this time next week. The cottage can withstand a storm surge of no greater than 14 feet. The boathouse, unfortunately, can only withstand 9 feet. Most likely our little boathouse will be flooded, at least.

Feelings at this moment? Like I said, I’m at peace knowing that all my loved ones are inland and safe. That’s all that really matters to me. Everything is in God’s hands and whatever happens, my prayer is for Him to be glorified in the midst of the storm and afterwards.

I will stop the blog post here and pick up later after the storm.....

It is now one month past Florence. Ocracoke Island, NC was completely unscathed. Only the north end ferry to Hatteras Island was affected and it was closed for a short while because rough waters damaged some dunes next to the ferry dock. Dunes are pretty quickly repaired on the Outer Banks (most of the time) and the ferry was up and running again the day before we traveled there. Otherwise, we would have simply gone a different route and taken one of the southern ferries (Swan Quarter or Cedar Island).

Florence didn’t cause any serious flooding in my hometown. Even our basement, which has a pretty serious water problem because our house is old, didn’t get very wet. Lucky again....

We took our trip to 10 Cuttin Sage and spent a week basking in pure, glorious sunshine. Why is the weather so utterly beautiful after a hurricane? We were joined by friends who have been friends for 25 years and who gave us a few days of their precious time to be with us. Activities consisted of fishing, shopping, eating, drinking wine, talking, sipping coffee, sightseeing, kayaking, etc. and much of it! Great to play catch up with old friends! We were able to go inside the lighthouse for the first time ever! We learned that the National Park Rangers open it up for a brief time about 3 days a week. Never knew that! Tourists are not allowed to climb it but are allowed in to take photos and see the architecture. What a treat!

So in conclusion, Florence left, in my sensibilities, a rather large amount of guilt that is assuaged by the thought that we were lucky this time, but at some point, our luck WILL run out and it will be our turn to experience the devastation of a massive hurricane. Correct in my thinking? Probably not. I pray for the victims of that terrible hurricane. I pray that, even though we experienced grace in God’s protection of our island, that all others affected by Florence will still experience God’s grace in the “ground zero” aftermath of this storm. Most of the time, God’s grace is more apparent during catastrophe than peace. He is Creator; He is in charge; that’s enough for me......