• Home
  • Blog
  • About
  • PNW
    • Kayak/Travel Blog
    • Maps
  • Reviews
EVERYONE'S TRAVEL CLUB
  • Home
  • Blog
  • About
  • PNW
    • Kayak/Travel Blog
    • Maps
  • Reviews

Hurricane Florence and the recovery in Eastern North Carolina

10/7/2018

2 Comments

 
Sharing recovery stories from hurricane florence ground zero - in the town of New Bern, North Carolina
   So, we've been a little distant lately. There was a reason. A big one: Flo. A direct hit from hurricane Florence here in Eastern North Carolina. Luckily, we (along with our family) are safe. Here's how it went down for us.
Hurricane Florence tracking via the travel link app in our Jeep Renegade
   I've been working part-time at a local marina in a nearby town of New Bern, NC. The salty sailor liveaboards had their ear to the ground (ear to the sea?) long before anyone. They knew the storm was coming. I had spent the summer prepping the marina for hurricane season - and here it was. I finished up some work and headed home to prep my place.
   We were going to stay, then we decided to evacuate, then reconsidered...in the end we decided to pack up the house and evacuate inland to Raleigh. We took the most important stuff, and battened down the hatches before we left - putting lots of stuff in plastic tubs and getting things off the ground level in preparation for flooding in our town. It was a little tricky because putting things upstairs risked putting them in harm's way if the roof blew off. Yikes.
Hurricane Florence food preparations
   Things we did right. We stocked up on gas, water, and food. These are the things that run out quick. We always have a hurricane stash of food and bottled water, we just added to it a bit when we knew the storm was 100% coming. Plastic tubs (for storage) & camping stoves/fuel are the next to sell out - we had those too - phew. I have two rain barrels in my backyard - I opened them up before we left to collect rainwater from the deluge of 20-30+ inches that were coming. We could use this water to flush the toilets after the storm.
   Our time in Raleigh was boring, but it was nice to sit out the storm with power, restaurants, and water. The storm hit the hardest on Thursday, and we returned home Monday. We had to navigate several closed highways and interstates to get back - I was constantly checking DOT and Facebook groups to chart a safe and successful way home. We made it. Gas was scarce along the way. Nowhere had power. 
   Once home, we started moving tree branches and debris from our yard and helping neighbors. Luckily, our house sustained no damage from the storm. It took the whole week to restore power - so it was camping at home. Town water ended up on a boil order for another whole week. 
Camping on the front porch after hurricane Florence knocked out our power for weeks
Camping on the front porch post hurricane.
Some Maysville, North Carolina damage from Hurricane Florence
   Our town sustained lots of wind damage but luckily, no flooding. 

Some of the Worst
Marina damage from hurricane Florence in New Bern, NC
   After the rivers blocking my way receded and camping life at home ended, I ventured into nearby New Bern, NC. The marina I work at had some issues (above) but actually fared much better than others around town. I helped demo a townhome in the town of Riverbend (video below), they got hit hard. The recovery continues. It's going to be a long road for many.
A broken sailboat beached in downtown New Bern, NC following hurricane Florence
Downtown New Bern following the flooding of hurricane Florence
National Guard on standby in downtown New Bern following hurricane Florence
Flooding in Emerald Isle near the beach following hurricane Florence
Emerald Isle following the storm

The Piano
   Later in the week I was asked to look at a grand piano that had been damaged in the storm. I wrote a little piece about it - my final thought about the hurricane and it's effects. We were lucky and thankful and are excited to get back to normal around here. We'll be back to posting regularly on Sundays!!!   ~Paul    EVERYONESTRAVELCLUB.COM 
A damaged piano in downtown New Bern, North Carolina following hurricane Florence
   "Today I learned I could never be a doctor. I was asked by a friend to take a look at a hurricane Florence piano, to see if it could be salvaged. In college I worked a few summers with a piano tuner and rebuilder. We rebuilt a few pianos from what seemed like complete ruin. I learned a lot.
This piano is a beautiful 6 ft-ish Baldwin. It is owned by a woman in her 80s. She remembers playing this piano as a little girl, with her mother. 
As Florence hit New Bern, the windows in this room blew out and (as you can see in the torn wallpaper) flood waters rose and swept into the house. They eventually drowned a lot of the piano - first the pedals, the key-bed. The water maybe even reached the action, pin-block, the soundboard, and the strings. 
Today the piano stood proud though, even as it somehow straddled giant holes and missing planks in the floor. I stayed to the remaining floor joists as I inspected her, imagining my added weight causing us to fall through the floor - imagine the piano sound that would make! What a finale! I almost wished she would have gone out like that. As you might guess, my final prognosis was grim.
I’d already been thinking a lot about how precious time is. It’s not that physical stuff really matters that much, it’s more a reminder to do the best you can with what time you have. One week you’re playing Debussy on your mom’s piano, gazing out your front windows at the water. And just like that, it’s all washed away."
2 Comments
Tom
6/26/2019 06:02:58 am

Are you no longer blogging?

Reply
ETC link
6/26/2019 07:48:27 am

Hey Tom!
Well, as you can probably tell, ETC is on the back-burner for now as I tackle new projects (www.litterpirate.com). I still answer comments and regularly tidy up behind the scenes stuff.

Many of our posts are regularly used by paddlers, locals from ENC and the PNW, and more so we keep it up for them!

-Paul ETC

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Picture

    Categories

    All
    Aboard Series
    Boating
    Drone
    Hiking
    Kayaking
    Museums
    North Carolina
    Press
    Road Trip
    Safari

    RSS Feed

    We hope you've enjoyed the time you've spent on our site. All images, text and designs are copyright Everyone's Travel Club and may not be used without written permission from ETC.
    Picture

    Archives

    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    December 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    September 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    November 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011

Picture

Connect:

Contact:

everyonestravelclub@gmail.com

  • Home
  • Blog
  • About
  • PNW
    • Kayak/Travel Blog
    • Maps
  • Reviews