Memories of FRAN

Well, it's come to me lately that we are closing in on the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Fran--that vicious 'lady' that slammed through the Raleigh area in September 1996.
If you know me, you know I love rain, and crave rainy days that don't come often enough for me in North Carolina. They are peaceful and calming. Now hurricanes and tropical storms usually bring the gift of rain in our region, except they often are accompanied by tremendous winds and even tornados. Not good!

On September 6th, 1996, Fran arrived, roaring in around midnight, with a vengence. Greg Fishel had forcast the possibility, but he didn't realize we were going to experience a direct hit. Somewhere between 12:30 and 1 pm, as the wind began to howl, a tall pine tree beside our house was twisted by a downburst and broke into three pieces, crushing my Pontiac van and Seth's Celebrity, stabbing through the living room wall just missing the fireplace, and spearing the roof countless times. It ripped off the gutters and the fashia boards on the front of the house, and the railing on the front steps. (Little did we know it would stay that way for 6+ months!) Next, a second pine fell, blocking the driveway and smashing through our shrubs and crepe myrtle!
The power died soon after. Keith and Seth went to the attic and attempted to make a few temporary patches with trash bags to keep out the pelting rain. Then we huddled together in the living room and hunkered down for the duration; Keith, Seth, Skye, Charlie and me, scared silly! Shivering and praying! Our Basset hound Charlie whined and trembled, hiding under our feet--he was no fool! He knew it was serious!

The wind moaned and roared, the rain came in buckets, and we could see the outline of the young pines bending down to the ground. Every so often we'd hear a pop when a tree split in two, or crashed to the ground, or into a house. We had a radio that was broadcasting the TV weather. That was a comfort. About 4am, the eye passed and the wind grew quieter. That night was one of the longest I've lived through! We certainly didn't sleep a wink! Do you know there were people that slept through the entire storm? Amazing!

At dawn, neighbors began appearing on the street, checking out how much damage had been done. The Vineyard was in shabbles! Trees, limbs, and debris were everywhere. Other than Seth, who headed straight to bed, we ventured outside and walked through the neighbor in bare feet, like zombies, in a daze, just glad to be alive! It looked like a bomb had exploded. I must say, we didn't sustain the worst damage, but our red house took the prize for looking the worst--all the gutters were dangling, the crown molding ripped away from the siding, the cars were smashed, and the rails from the railing were scattered over the yard like matchsticks! As the day wore on people would walk by and take pictures of our sad red house.

Then the chain saws came out. Whoa---nothing like fellas wanting to whip out their chain saws in a crisis! But what a wonderful sound, the roar of chainsaws--progress:) An old friend Bill and his son Brandon showed up to help cut and remove the limbs lying across the cars. What a blessing:) That was the first of countless kindnesses shown during that strange post-Fran September.

The rest of Friday, Saturday and Sunday people all over Wake County were scouting around looking for ice. I remember standing in line at the Harris Teeter at the mall for an hour or more waiting for bags of ice to be unloaded and put out on pallets. The power was off everywhere and food was spoiling. Some of the neighbors had cookouts so they could use up their meat. Some folks packed up and left town to stay with friends or relatives.

Sunday night around 9pm the lights in Shepherd's Vineyard flickered back on. You could hear everybody on Apache Lane and Smokewood shouting in unison "HURRAY!" A community celebrating! I'm afraid SO many areas didn't get their power back for a week or more. We were a blessed bunch!

We finally got in touch with Cameron Saturday night. He had been in Tenn. with a friend and missed the storm. Did he even know that Fran came through the area until I called; that is the question? I'm not sure to this day.

School was out for a week. Clean up crews came into Shepherd's Vineyard and Cary and Raleigh from everywhere; Florida, Charlotte, Texas, Pa., etc. They used cranes, backhoes, roadgraders, dumptrucks, etc., whatever could cut, saw, move, grind, or haul the debris! It took months and months! Many days I watched and took photographs.

Our small damage took almost a year to clean up and repair. But it does give me some 'inkling' of what New Orleans and Mississippi are still going through a year after Hurricane Katrina. And they they had such devastating damage. It will take years and years to rebuild. Can most people stand that stress? Only through the help of others, and knowing that God is their hope. So many friends and strangers helped us through that awful time, and I am so thankful.

Central N.C.is facing tropical storm Ernesto passing through tomorrow and Friday. He's welcome, at least for some much needed rain.....but that's really all we need. Alberto visited earlier this summer, gave us precious rain, but he left some flooding.
Do be careful the next few days, listen to Greg, and pray for a gentle visit from Ernesto:)