Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Hurricane Matthew~the view from Myrtle Beach, SC

Just a short posting to let you know the storm came through and left, we're still here, we didn't blow away! Hurricane Matthew hit parts of the Caribbean and Florida very hard, we were expecting a Category 2 hurricane here in South Carolina but fortunately it was downgraded by the time it arrived here.  It still did tremendous damage in Charleston and north of here in North Carolina.  Our house is just far enough inland that we were not ordered to evacuate.  We did lose power for parts of three days, the Internet was down even longer.  The worst day was Saturday with that terrible wind and rain that blew sideways.  I felt like a little dog running from window to window watching the storm rage.  Siding was blowing off of houses in our neighborhood. What an amazing display of power!  We ventured out the next day and took a few pictures of the surrounding area.  After driving around the block I'd seen enough and just wanted to go home.

This is the entry to our complex


Many homes suffered flooding in their yards

A lot of windows were boarded up

At least these poles were still standing, even though a little crooked, many had snapped off.

A lot of the fences were blown apart.


We had our grill in the garage so I made all our meals, including our morning coffee, on that.  Everything in the fridge and freezer was on ice.  My daughter, Holly, was visiting from California for the week so she felt like she was on a glorified camping trip.  Now she said she can check off "survived a hurricane" from her bucket list even though it was never there.  We're all Southern Californians so we know earthquakes, not hurricanes, it was a little unnerving to say the least.

It was such a beautiful day on Sunday and has continued to be lovely weather ever since.  The cleanup here began as soon as the storm passed and I'm sure by next week it will look as if nothing ever happened.

We did get a new neighbor who now lives in our pond, we noticed her/him the next day...an alligator.  Our very own Nessie.  It is about 5 feet long, I'm just hoping it doesn't eat all my sweet turtles that live in that pond.  I call "breakfast" and about 4 of the turtles come swimming down to be fed.  I just hope they're not breakfast any time soon.  My next door neighbor warned me today to be careful when I go out the back door since we don't have a fence around the yard as yet.  I don't want to be "breakfast" or worse, a snack.

I'll share some of my artful creations done during that down time in another blog posting.  I'm grateful for so many things right now and just glad the storm has left.  I'm so sorry that so many others are suffering from the immense power of Matthew.  My thoughts and prayers are with them.  I do want to thank so many of my friends, relatives and  art sisters from around the world that checked up on me during those dark days. Thank you all.
Hugs~ Renee

5 comments:

  1. So glad to read that you are safe.

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  2. Oh Renee! Thank goodness you are okay and also that you have gone through ice storms up here- guess it prepared you for"camping" down there! Mother Nature can be so devastating, I wish more people would take heed-
    ugh, I don't know that I would want that new visitor in the back yard- can the rangers come relocate it? yikes! Sending hugs,Jackie xx

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  3. It was nice that you could post online that you were safe so that we didn't worry, Renee. I also got that notice from a friend, so that service is very helpful for those of us who remain worried! Yes, I agree, there is much worse damage elsewhere, but these photos are very serious nonetheless. Stay away from that alligator!

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  4. So glad you are okay and that you had such good company with Holly there. Yikes on Nessie!

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  5. Oh gosh...clean up not good, but thank God you are okay, and the storm was not as bad in the states as expected.

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