Nature's Impact: My Helene Experience. Day 1
I have been procrastinating writing this blog for many weeks. I really don't know how to write this, how to word it, or how to frame it. The only thing that I can feel to do is just write it. Just sit down and just let my thoughts and feelings flow into words. So here goes my Helene experience.
After making it through a pandemic recently I never thought I would be in a major event that would not only change the world I live in, but also be a catalyst to major changes in my life and my family's lives. Even up to the time I woke up on the morning of September 27th, 2024 I never realized the storm, both physically and mentally, I was about to endure.
They were calling for it to be a severe storm with high winds and bad flooding. We had several inches of rain from a different system the day before. I do not live in a flood zone, so I was preparing for possible power outages for a few hours after the storm went through. The night before my wife and I decided that I should go fill up both of our cars with gas and keep my five gallon gas can full in case we would need our generator. I did that and came home and went to bed for the night listening to some light rain and light winds.
Around 1am I woke up to our power going out for about 5 seconds and then coming back on. Then about 5 minutes later it went out again for another 5 seconds and then came back on. I checked the power outage map and discovered that the neighborhoods to the South of my house had lost power, but fortunately our's still on. I fell back to sleep with the hope that we were going to make it through without losing our power. Little did I know that my life would soon be turned upside down.
My alarm buzzed and I woke up at 430, my normal time to get up to prepare for work. My wife greeted me with a quick good morning. Our power was still on and I was going to start my morning routine of taking care of our animals and getting a shower. But my wise wife stopped me and asked me to make coffee first just in case our power would go out. We could hear the wind blowing strongly outside and decided that would be best.
We opened our windows and sat down to go through our apps on our phones and see what had transpired with the storm. Soon the coffee was ready and we sat together drinking it. Within 10 minutes of taking our 1st sip, our power went out. A total loss at all the homes around us. We sat in the dark, no normal noise, only the sound of the hurricane outside.
As we listened to the sound of the wind, my wife asked me if I was still going to try to drive in to work. My job Is only a 5 minute drive from my house and there wasn't much that I could do here, so I made the decision to try to go on to work. I reached out to one of the managers to see if the power was still on there, and it was. So I got dressed and prepared for my journey through the storm not realizing how truly bad it was, nor how horrific things would soon turn.
The drive into work wasn't too bad. The wind was howling and the rain pattering against my car. Besides avoiding a few small downed branches in the road, it ended up being an uneventful trip. I parked my car and got out into the howling wind. I could see trees and power lines starting to be blown around more significantly. I raced to the side entrance of the building, entered my passcode and bolted inside quickly. I walked at a fast pace to my office, set my lunch bag down on my desk and BOOM. Unbelievable. A loud noise outside and simultaneously the power to the entire building goes out.
I made my way to the safety location that was set up in the event of our power outage and a bad weather event. It was here that I would soon learn that the plant was being shut down and everyone sent back home. I was about to begin the same journey I just completed but with an entirely different outcome.
I made it back to my car, but this time things were darker with the power outage. I noticed immediately that things were being blown around more and I could see the roof of the building trying to hold in as the gusting wind pushed against it. I got out of the parking lot and down the first three roads of my journey home and it was similar to the journey in, only a few downed branches to avoid. I only had one more road to go and I would be back home to my family. I made the turn at the traffic light onto this road and I could hear the noise of what I thought were branches rubbing against the top of my car. I peered up through the window and discovered quickly that it wasn't branches, but power lines starting to collapse and come down from the force of the wind. I quickly moved my car over to the other lane and gunned it to move quickly past this dangerous circumstance. Looking in my rear view mirror I could see the poles and line falling down across the road I just passed over. But this time I was trying to remain calm, the severity of what almost happened to me had not settled. I was only a few hundred feet from home and I just needed to get there. As I now changed my view to the road in front of me, I could see a tree that had fallen onto a power line and pole. The pole had fallen halfway over the road, but managed to keep enough strength to hold up the tree's weight and not completely collapse into the road. I quickly drove past it and made it to my driveway. I was home, I was safe, but my morning was just getting started.
Soon I was back inside sitting on the couch with my wife and kids in my living room. We sat together quietly listening to the sounds of trees cracking and falling from the force of the wind. It sounded like bombs going off all around us. It was daylight now and we could see explosions and blue lights off in the distance up and down the mountains we love. We would hear trees fall across the road from us. One by one the small forest was thinning out. Offsetting that would be the same sounds and the wind devastating the trees in the woods behind our house. My wife and I would run back and forth, horrified by the destruction of our beloved trees and woods. We started to see things being blown off our home. We would go outside and try to pick them up. Trying to stay confined to our covered front porch.
I would find myself standing up and just staring out my front window not knowing what was going to happen. I glimpsed a green truck driving down the road slowly. It stopped in front of our house and sat. I looked down the road and I could see a tree had fallen across the road blocking this truck from going any farther. I looked in the other direction and I saw the same thing. Another tree had fallen across the road blocking the truck from returning in the direction it came. It was trapped. The truck would slowly pull up in my driveway and a man got out. He introduced himself as John and he was trying to get home to his family who lived in a development down the road from us. We stood on my porch talking while the wind gusted around us and the rain poured. John told me he was at work and his wife had called him in a panic because a tree had fallen on their house. He asked us if it would be ok if he could leave his truck in our driveway so that he could walk the rest of the way home to get to his family. Of course we allowed him to, we wished him good luck and we headed back inside as he started gathering his belongings out of his truck.
On the back of our house Is a sunroom that we access through a French door in our dining room. We would spend many mornings and evenings sitting in our sunroom, having coffee and enjoying the forest scenery around us including watching the various different types of wildlife journeying through our yard. These activities were very calming to us and brought us great joy. Now, on this horrific morning, I find myself standing in this room with my wife watching the forest be destroyed in front of our eyes. Our kids were laying on the couches in the living room and we stood in the sunroom wondering when all of this would end. We turned to look out of another window in the sunroom and then BOOM!
Rebekah looked at me with a startled look on her face. She stood quietly and then looked at me and said, “ What was that?” I knew immediately what it was but hoped that I was wrong. I ran quickly into the living room and to the front door and I looked out horrified at what I saw. There is a very large oak tree on my property near my driveway. We would love to watch the Squirrels and birds go back and forth in the tree, listen to the acorns fall, and complain about the amount of leaves it would give us to rake every fall. Now, I look out my window and this magnificent, beautiful, old tree is no longer standing brave and tall, but instead has fallen across the corner of my house, the side of my porch, on top of smaller trees and bushes, and the top of it resting inches from the front of John's truck.
John was still there standing in the driveway, mouth gaping open realizing that the tree had just missed him and immediately wondering what the condition of his family and home were in after their tree had fallen. He came back to the present quickly and saw us and immediately inquired if we were all OK and safe. We were. The tree had hit the corner of my son's room but fortunately he was not in it at the time. With the thoughts of his family on his mind, John left quickly to get home and we began to assess the damage.
The first thing we did was send our children to the basement because we are still being battered by the wind and if the mighty oak fell, we didn't know what could be next. We couldn't see any damage inside the house and I journeyed to the outside in the storm to see what damage it had inflicted. It was difficult to see anything but I thought the interior and structure of the home would be ok. When I got inside I heard my son calling for me and I would soon learn I was wrong. It was still pouring heavily outside and as I met my son in the basement I would see water running down the walls of my garage. As I started to assess that, Rebekah began to call me to come back upstairs. I run to her and find her in my son's room watching water run down his walls, spreading across the ceiling and starting to drop down into his room. We start to move quickly. We gather all of his electronics, clothing, bedding and furniture and get it out of his room and to other areas of the home not affected by the water. We start putting buckets and tubs out trying to catch what water we can and limit the amount of damage it was causing. We were doing all of this while Helene was still hitting us, winds gusting, heavy rainfall, and the sounds of trees continuing to crack and fall.
As the storm started letting up we would eventually emerge from the house. Traumatized, but alive. We walked to the road in front of our house. The oak had fallen across our driveway, narrowly missing our cars, but blocking us in and eliminating them from being used to get us out. We would start to meet up with neighbors, people we had never really met before, and started making sure we were ok. Offering to help each other. Offering what resources we had that may help others. Soon we had chainsaws and we were trying to clear the road together. Trying to get one lane open just to get cars out. None of us knew or had any idea of the severity, death and total destruction that had affected the area. We would spend most of the afternoon outside. Checking on each other. Checking on our children who lived in the area. We were all safe and eventually we would all meet up later in the day. Eventually an emergency vehicle came through to assess the damage on our road. They told us they would try to get someone to us, to get us to a shelter if needed. They just didn't know when because the resources were focused on the harder hit areas. Harder hit areas I wondered, not knowing about the extent of the damage elsewhere.
We were able to get our children together with their siblings. Like us, they didn't have power but their homes were structurally safe. With them in a safe place, Rebekah and I began organizing our possessions to prepare for what is next. Even though we were in the middle of the biggest natural disaster in over 100 years, we still needed order and structure to survive and think mentally. There was no power in the entire area. Most of the roads were closed or blocked. All stores and businesses were closed and there was very little communication happening.
As darkness started to set in, we had a tree on our house which blocked our cars, preventing us from using them. We had a hole in our roof and four rooms wet and smelly, damaged by the water from the storm. We had woods around our house obliterated. It was easier to count the trees still standing than the trees that had fallen. We had no power and began to light candles. We moved my son's belongings to the basement and left his mattress on our living room floor for us to sleep on so that we were safe. Thankfully it was late September but it wasn't cold yet. We could leave our windows open to keep us cool and help with the smell of the mildewing room. But we were alive. We were safe. We sat and discussed our plan of action for tomorrow. What did we need to do to move forward? Food? Water? Supplies? What happens next?
Rebekah and I were exhausted. Mentally and physically. We laid down on the mattress. The window was open next to us. It was nothing but darkness outside. Darkness inside. There was no noise. No cars. No animals. No people. No bugs. Just total silence. We laid there, Rebekah in my arms, holding each other, thankful that we survived, but apprehensive about what tomorrow would bring. As day one concluded, we slowly drifted off to sleep in the darkness of the mountains and the silence of what was left of the forests around trying to ponder about what had just happened to us.
By Michael Walters
The Ancestors Fire
Writing The voices of the unheard
Comments