What a Year Can Bring. My Hurricane Story.

     It's amazing what a year can bring.  It was only a year ago, when all of us in Eastern North Carolina were making preparations to "ride out" another hurricane.  Folks on the Island were getting crab pots out of the water, securing boats, making plans to get cars to higher ground, putting lawn mowers and other equipment up out of harm's way and watching and waiting.
     Nobody in their wildest dreams could have imagined the destruction and despair this "minimal" category one hurricane would do to Goose Creek Island and the surrounding communities.  I was up in Wanchese, doing the same thing the Islanders were doing.  Getting yard furniture put up, stocking up on water, helping neighbors get their belongings ready, and making sure re-entry permits were up to date. 
     I didn't evacuate from Wanchese when the evacuation notices started coming, just like those from the Island. We've all weathered many storms and know what they bring.  We all take our chances but yet we all feel compelled to stay at our homes for sake of security and the safety we feel surrounded by those things that are part of our lives.
     I can recall that morning when the storm started to roll ashore.  I have a second home "On the Straits"  near Harkers Island.  A dear friend in Marshallberg had let us know via Facebook that "the eye" had just come ashore at around 7:30am at Cape Lookout (only a seagull flight from my Down East home).  It wasn't long, Hurricane Irene was barrelling on up the Sound.  Reports from the nearby community of Stacy indicated major flooding.
     Sitting at my home in Wanchese, all was well up on my end of the beach.  The rain bands were coming through and the wind had stiffened much of the morning.  My power was still on and we were keeping close eye of it's track.  It is common knowledge that any time a storm rolls through Pamlico Sound, flooding along the Outer Banks and Pamlico Sound was going to be a concern.  The Wancheser's were keeping their eyes toward the south and preparing for possible flooding.
     Then the reports starting coming in from Goose Creek Island.  The first indication I got that Eastern North Carolina was in trouble was when my best friend Shirley Mayo Ireland of Lowland posted a picture of her husband's truck almost completely flooded at around 11:30am.  I grew up on the Horne Road in Lowland and I was used to seeing storm surge, even from a northeaster'.  But I had never seen anything like this.  I called right away and Shirley said it was the worst flooding in ages.  Nobody was spared.  Even those few who didn't get flooding in their homes, still suffered damages.

Early morning August 27, 2011. Water starting to fill the ditches in Lowland.

By 11:30am.  Hurricane Irene has come to Lowland.

     As all sound side fisher folks know, all of Pamlico Sound's communities are twined with salt and lore.  Everybody is always concerned with how other fisher folk are fairing in other maritime villages.  Immediately, I went next door to my neighbor in Wanchese to report damages from "down the sound".  My neighbor Will Daniels jumped in the truck to head "to the Landing".  When he got there, all was secure.  The tide was down and the wind was coming around, but nothing to be overly alarmed about.  Fellow fishermen who were out checking boats were concerned with Oregon Inlet and prayed that it would be spared. He returned home to continue to monitor the weather, only to return to the harbor within an hour.
     As if a drain plug had been removed, the water was leaving Roanoke Sound and the sound side of the Outer Banks, and it was leaving fast.  The vast movement of water was alarming and most of the fishermen in Wanchese were at the harbor working on boat lines. Many boats were sitting on the bottom.  All of this work was going on while battling rain and a heavy wind, yet "down the sound", our coastal neighbors were scrambling to save anything and everything. 

No water on the Roanoke Island sound side as Irene was making her push to the North. 

     The word was out that the fishing villages of Rodanthe and Avon were experiencing heavy flooding and Hwy. 12 at Pea Island was breached.  The Weather Channel had shifted their focus to the Northeast in their attempts to prepare those folks, all the while the foothold of destruction was evident that Eastern North Carolina "had not been spared".
     And then, the water came.  A neighbor who lives a quarter mile from us on the sound, drove up to the house.  She wanted to park her car because water was starting to come up.  And up it came.   Will decided to run down to the horse pen and check on the horses.  It was a good thing he did.  The water was rising so fast, that the water was chest high on the horses.  All Will could do was open the gate and turn them out.  
     Within those few minutes, the water had risen so high that Will barely made it back to the house, which sits on one of the highest ridges in Wanchese.  Word was coming from the Landing that homes  were flooding, especially the westside of the island including downtown Manteo, Stumpy Point and Manns Harbor.  All I could do was watch.  I watched it come all the way unto the driveway and then it stopped just as quickly as it came in.  I recall looking around at my home and the homes of my neighbors on each side. Everything around us was surrounded by water, except for us few.  Just two houses down, 80 year old Capt. Moon Tillett was astonished at the amount of water.  He said in all his years living on that plot of land, water had never come so high.
     The news of destruction never let up the rest of the evening and through the night.  The wind was still howling and the water was slowly receding.  When daybreak came, the water was gone, but it's vivid reminder of what it brought was left behind.  Fishermen were venturing out to check damages to boats.  Others were starting to get the flooded items out of their homes.  The horses were found eating grass in someone's yard as if there was not a care in the world.
     The same activities were taking place on Goose Creek Island.  Lives were never going to be the same. Within a couple of days, I made my way to Lowland knowing that friends and family needed help.  I remember seeing the cars and trucks still parked at the bridge. Once I got closer to the Hobucken Marina, it was evident that the face of the Island had changed.  Personal belongings, furniture, toys, people's lives were throwed to the side of the road.  It was heartbreaking.
      But the scene that I saw later that day at the Fire Department will be with me forever.  Never before had I witnessed a most humbling people who stood in line to get a hot meal.  It hurt me know that it was these very same Islanders who have ALWAYS lent a hand and GAVE to help their neighbors....now had to be the recipients.  And yes, I couldn't but help to cry when I saw this.  To me, that despair was worse than the physical damage itself.
      But like true Islanders, they went to work.  They went to work helping themselves, helping their neighbors, helping the churches, helping the elderly, doing whatever needed to be done.  You see there is something about people who have spent a lifetime on the water.  These people are hardy people and they know how to work and work HARD!  There's determination in their veins....they will overcome.  They know how to work through the hardships and rejoice in the triumphs.  Just as their forefathers before them, this was just a bump in the road.  They never gave up.  Their determination to rebuild and regroup is what makes real Islanders obsolete.
     And the Islanders are still persevering today.  After a challenging year of rebuilding, life is starting to get back to normal. Sure, there is still plenty of work to be done but the Island IS coming back to life.  The annual Goose Creek Island Homecoming is coming up and what a homecoming it's going to be. This is why I have started this Journal.  Hurricane's will come but they can't destroy who we are.  It is my prayer that Goose Creek Island as well as our neighboring sound side communities will keep the faith and continue to live in a place we can all be proud to say we are from.

Photo's courtesy of Shirley Mayo Ireland and Outer Banks Connection.