Just wanted to give all of my friends and family on Facebook a quick update…all is well here in East Raleigh.
Other than a few power flickers and one outage lasting about a hour…my oldest son and I came through the storm just fine. NWS Raleigh is estimating we got about 8-10″ of rain from Florence which was actually more than what Matthew dumped on us two years ago. There was localised flooding in the area but even though the City of Raleigh was so paranoid about the flood plain that is right behind my house
that they actually suggested I evacuate…the water from the lake never came close to the back of my lot, much less the house! There’s about a 50-75 ft drop from the series of four lakes behind me down to Crabtree Creek which then flows into the Neuse River not too far away.
Honestly, my greatest irritation during Florence was the deal Nicholas must have made with the ruler of the infernal regions to absolutely kill me 3-nil at Monopoly. It is truly staggering how often he’d say he wanted a particular roll of the dice and get it. And he’d get monopolies like it was no one’s business and ruthlessly use them to put me to the sword. Good thing I love that kid… 😉
My family in Fayetteville (my mother and sister at a condo near Cross Creek Mall and my brother and his girlfriend/family are near the Hoke County line) are also safe but currently without power and with all of the flooding and damage down there…it’s anyone’s guess when it will come back on. But they seem to be taking the challenge in stride with the only one truly irritated being the cat who is rather put out that her TV is unavailable due to lack of power.
The pictures from Fayetteville are heart-wrenching though…the thought of my beautiful home town under water and the massive cleanup to follow really hits home and not in a good way. The Cape Fear River that passes near downtown may not make the record flood stage of 68′ but it’s going to be significantly higher than Matthew’s 58′ at crest. Our hopes and thoughts are with everyone back home in Lafayette’s city and Ft Bragg that the floodwaters will recede and life quickly returns to normal.