As anticipated, Hurricane Isabel slammed into the North Carolina coast between Cape Lookout and Ocracoke Island today. The center of circulation tracked well east of us passing Greenville, Wilson, Rocky Mount, and Roanoke Rapids before finally heading into Virginia (it’s thirty miles out of Emporia, Virginia at the time of this entry).
Even though Isabel wasn’t the category 5 storm she was a few days ago, she still packed a mighty punch. Things got interesting here in Clayton round about lunch time. We had the winds pick up earlier in the day but our first real squalls came round 1300 hours and we lost power completely for the first time (we had been doing the flash and flicker routine for a while).
The real excitement was at 1500 hours when the eye made it’s closest approach and we had 40-60 knot winds for a good four or so hours. During this time, we lost power a couple of more times including a two-to-three hour stretch (we don’t really know how long it was…we all fell asleep!).
But apparently someone in higher places has a funny sense of humour as the power came up just in time to tape the first episode of Survivor that Grammy had requested!
A quick check outside (with 30-40 knot winds) showed that we have some shingle damage (some that are flapping when the wind hits and a couple of others that are actually off the house). But all things considered, that’s hardly anything and we seem to have power back (we had one big drop in the middle of Survivor and another flicker an hour or so ago which will probably be the norm until the winds die down).
The latest reports from Grammy’s house in Zebulon (about 25-30 miles closer to Rocky Mount and the passage of the eye) is that even though she has lost power and phone briefly, the few trees that have come down have been well away from the house.
And Nicholas? I think Mommy and Daddy were more nervous about this storm than he was. If he wasn’t eating or being cuddled, he was his usual chipper self (or he was asleep!). Not bad for a little guy experiencing his first big, scary hurricane!
