~ Hurricane Fran ~
September, 1996
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This is the kennel area. To the left are two destroyed runs and the nearly collapsed building was the main kennel area where the collies were kept. |
In September, 1996, Hurricane Fran swept through North Carolina, leaving behind such total destruction and devastation as to be unimaginable. As the storm grew at sea and projected landfalls put her in North Carolina we prepared for the worst. though the following photos are not as graphic as some of those seen on the news or in the papers, these were our own personal experiences with Fran, and the mess she left behind. And yes, we DO know just how lucky we were!
I drew gallons of water, even filling the bathtub to flush the toilet once we had all showered. I stocked up on charcoal, bread, canned goods, dry staples and lunchmeat so we would not go hungry. I laughed to myself at the people in the store buying up frozen dinners...). I bought kerosene for lamps, lamp oil for candles, batteries for the radio, flashlights and clocks. All the laundry was done and the house cleaned.
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A close-up of the rear of the kennel building. My Collies would have stroked out if they had been in there during the storm... |
At the time of Fran we lived in a tiny cabin tucked away at the edge of the woods. The back yard was graced with two of the largest, oldest, most beautiful yellow oak trees you could imagine. One of those oaks is easily seen here, in the first image above-
The night Fran struck all the dogs were brought in the house and crated for safety. That would have been Noella, Kitty, Rookie, Dawn, Duff - the shelties - and then Cash, Satin, Marianne, Evie and Renee - the Collies. So my tiny, 1200 square-foot house contained the family plus FOUR Collies and FIVE Shelties. Normally, several of the Collies would have been in the kennels...
It was a long night filled with the sharp cracks and reports (like guns) of trees snapping to pieces all around us, of tremendous "rips" in the fabric of our world. By midnight, when the worst of the storm was raging overhead, I began to pray, asking God to please keep us safe. For three long hours my prayer held me - "Please keep us safe... Please keep us safe... Please keep us safe..."
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Typical- electric poles snapped like toothpicks. This one was a rare find, basically still standing. Most of them lay in pieces on the ground. |
And He did keep us safe. By about 3:30 a.m. the worst of the storm had passed, and winds were beginning to subside somewhat, so fitful sleep finally came. My last conscious thought before drifting off to sleep was "Thank you, God." The hour of rest was short though, as we awakened about 7:00 a.m. to a world much different than that which we had laid to rest the night before. We quickly did our morning chores then piled in the car to observe what local damage we could.
Most roads were impassable. Though the radio was fraught with the governor of the state begging everyone to stay off the roads, don't go to work, let's get emergent things cared for first, folks did leave for work and those who did, did not get far before being forced to turn back due to trees and power lines blocking the roads. Many of these wonderful people returned home to get their chain saws to begin the arduous chore of cleaning up the roadways to at least passable. Clean-up lasted for months, actually, and much of it was simply left to weather and rot where it lay.
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One of the main streets in Goldston |
We at Ailea's Place were very lucky. There was no loss of life, no injury. We were all safe and sound in our cabin, which survived the storm without a single piece of roofing missing, which is amazing considering 60 feet away, to the rear of the house, stood the kennel, the whole back of which was virtually destroyed. All around the house was untold destruction, but we were kept safe and sound. Prayers are answered if you but have the faith it takes to believe in them.
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This is the road I lived on at the time, heading west just out of the driveway. At 7:30 a.m. this road was impassable, but by 9:00 a single travel lane had been cleared by the nameless heroes who immediately began cutting our way back to civilization |
Amazingly, though we did lose power (the whole state, I think, lost power!), and spent much of the day after the storm consuming perishables like ice cream, and locally they had turned off the entire grid, but our preparedness paid off, as within 48 hours of Fran's passing electricity to our home was miraculously restored. We, who were prepared and better able to cope than most, were restored almost immediately, while others without such skills or preparedness - mostly those within city limits - were without power for as many as three weeks before everything was finally restored.
We survived, virtually unscathed. Who said there is no God, no such thing as miracles? Not me!
Electric
poles and lines were down everywhere you went. I am certain, had I seen a patrol
officer, I would have been ordered OFF the roads... My curiosity though, kept me
out and looking! Uprooted trees - mainly huge pines, but some hardwoods - were
simply everywhere.
This photo at left is simply another graphic depiction of the most common damage - downed trees, power lines, snapped utility poles. Most of these pictures were taken from inside the car... I was just a leeedle bit skeered to jump out of the car at the time, since I was uncertain if any of the electric lines lying all over the road were live or not...
One
of the scariest aspects, I think, of a storm of this magnitude - the water
overflow. It is hard to imagine the quantity of rain that falls in such very
short periods of time, flooding any- and everything in its wake. Homesites -
entire communities - that have NEVER flooded in recorded history often do with
the passing of a hurricane like Fran. This vein of rushing water known as Bear
Creek, which nearly reached the bottom of the bridge after Fran, is normally a
very small creek, barely discernible through the underbrush, about 15 feet under
the bridge.
The
next photograph is of the Haw River, which bisects Chatham County and is
something I cross every day going to and from work. Normally a broad, quiet
expanse of river where this photo was taken, at the spillway under the U.S.
15-501 bridge in Bynum, you can easily see the Haw changed her face quite a bit
immediately following Fran, becoming a dangerous, roiling mass rushing by so
madly you cannot even make out the drop-off of the spillway, which really is
there, somewhere, under all that insanity...
The
last image is simply amazing, to me. This is a bridge support where U.s. 64
travels east-west over Jordan Lake. Though you cannot really read what is
written, you can at least see the red writing at the very top of the concrete
support, and the line underneath what appear to be numbers.
The line indicates the water level
(233.42 feet, if you could read the numbers in the photo) of the lake following
Fran. Normal lake level is 216 feet, which is approximately the level of the
lake where WE were when we boated under the bridge and I took this picture. The
entire lake, actually, was closed for nearly two months to allow the water
levels to recede. Much of Chatham County that rarely is, was under water from
the lake flooding.