29/09/2024
We’ve arrived at our house in Eastern NC. It’s too dark to take stock of the yard, though I know we have some branches down. The drive here was sobering. We saw SO many trees down and cleared on the highways in SC. The rest stops were closed, no power from the SC border until we got to the east side of Columbia (maybe 100ish miles)? The gas stations that did have power had lines for miles. We saw neighborhoods near creeks and rivers that were completely flooded and some of those waters came right to the bottom of bridges we were crossing. We didn’t have cell service for a big portion of that drive, too.
My SO’s mom lives in Waynesville, NC, just outside of Asheville. She has no power or internet and we hadn’t heard from her all day until we walked in the door. All roads going in and out of Asheville are closed. We were so lucky in our part of the mountains, but so many others weren’t. I’ve seen some damage in Katrina and Rita, but never anything as widespread as this. These communities are going to need so much help in the coming days and weeks.
