Hurricane Florence

It has been a very eventful week as hurricane Florence decided to head toward the Carolinas.  We first heard about the hurricane when Lynn and Dick arrived on 9/8 in Charlotte.  He said that they had talked about canceling the class he was suppose to teach.  Scott and I were both clueless we had not heard about a hurricane.  Over the next few days though that is all we heard about.  It was a category 4 hurricane and was moving slowly toward the Carolina coast.  As with other hurricanes they can't predict it's path entirely so it was uncertain if it would come toward Charlotte.  Dick's classes in Charlotte went as planned but his class in Durham for Thursday and Friday was cancelled.  They headed back to Boston ahead of the storm Thursday morning.  The hurricane hit Wilmington, NC Thursday night but was moving so slowly we did not get any rain until Friday night.  They had closed school on Friday as a precaution to the storm and the girls had fun playing outside in the wind.  It would get gusty for a while and then die down and come back.  They tried flying a kite but it wasn't constant wind so it didn't do well.  Olivia decided to make her own kite and she came out with a plastic bag and a string tied to the handle.  It actually worked pretty well so her sisters decided to try it and then when Sarah and her 3 kids came over they made more for them.  It was a cheap and fun activity and Sarah and I were able to visit in peace while they all played outside with their 'kites'.  Ethan had fun playing with his new cozy coupe that Paw-Paw and Nana found at a yard sale but he wan't interested in flying a kite.



The hurricane moved slowly dumping tons of rain on NC.  In Charlotte we got 5-10 inches of rain, at the fire station down the road they recorded 8.88 inches of rain from 6pm Saturday to 6pm Sunday.  We had a small lake in our backyard but it did not make it up to the house and our lights only went out for a minute one time and then came back on.  There were lots of trees down around Charlotte and I had to turn around once on my way to work Monday due to a down tree across the road.  We've heard a few friends that had leaks from the roof but nothing major here in Charlotte.  Wilmington, Lumberton, and Fayetteville have all had a lot of flooding and the rivers are still very high so I know there will be lots of damage out that way.