How my family literally looked into the eye of Hurricane Earl’s storm
Poor eyesight. Baldness. Big feet. These are all things that can be passed down from generation-to-generation.
In my family, our inherited trait is bad luck.
And also the aforementioned misfortunes.
We come up a wee bit short in the gene pool.
I hail from an uproarious, fun-loving Canadian family but if anything bad can happen, it usually does. That said, what do you get when your entire Murphy’s Law clan congregates for the first time in 10 years in North Carolina’s famed Outer Banks?
Hurricane Earl, that’s what.
And I only wish I was joking.
Our week-long vacation actually started out smoothly. My generous mother rented a beach-side mansion that accommodated all 15 siblings and cousins in the Outer Banks’ Southern Shores.
For five glorious days, we splashed in our pool, built sand castles, chased the waves, explored quaint fishing villages, kite-boarded, stalked crabs at night and collected sea shells at dawn. It was as close to utopia as The Bad Luck Clan has ever come and I never wanted it to end.
Hurricane Earl had other ideas.
We had been casually tracking the hurricane’s progress. We knew when we planned our vacation that it was peak hurricane season but, as my friend Tom queried on Facebook: “What are the odds of you being there when a hurricane is coming?”
Evidently pretty darn good because, out of all the destinations along the Atlantic Ocean, the Outer Banks was Hurricane Earl’s first stop.
We were unsure of what to do. As Canadians, the only natural disaster with which we’re familiar is having our nose hairs freeze in sub-zero temperatures.
The southern portion of the Outer Banks was evacuated in what meteorologists initially predicted would be a Class 4 hurricane. Our beach house was 45 minutes north. While we did not want to cut our vacation two days short by leaving, we also did not want to take any unnecessary risks.
The county made the decision for us by ordering mandatory evacuation of all visitors.
We hurriedly loaded up our cars. As the queen of worst-case scenarios, I was ready. We had bottled water. Ample food. A full tank of gas for our inland escape route. If nothing else, escaping Earl’s clutches would make for some great blog fodder.
Except the drama never really unfolded.
I had anticipated being stuck for hours in traffic with other desperate, fleeing tourists.
We easily cruised across the bridge to the mainland in record time.
I envisioned the storm leveling houses and flooding streets.
The area did not even lose power.
AP Photo/Gerry Broome
In the end, Hurricane Earl sideswiped the Outer Banks causing some flooding but no injuries and only modest damage. Though it was a huge upset in our family vacation, it was an instance wherein it was better to be safe than sorry.
Unless you’re my Crazy Canuck brother Pat who wanted to kite-board through it all.
My mother had wisely invested in hurricane insurance. She was not only reimbursed for the two nights we had to leave our beach house but also for the cost of our stay in exile.
Because even Murphy’s Law deserves a silver lining now and then.
Have you ever been involved in a natural disaster?
More from Mile High Mamas
- Life’s Magical Adventure: Aurora Wife of Convicted Ponzi Schemer Shares Her Story, Part III
- It’s a Party–Celebrating the Evolution of Mom Blogs!
- How garage doors result in the downfall of marriage
Mile High Mamas Recommends
- Sarah Palin’s coining of the word “refudiate” (eLetters)
- Keep the Democrats out of the governor’s office (eLetters)
- Obama’s State of the Union and the federal deficit (2 letters) (eLetters)
Oh my heavens. This was the saddest and funniest thing ever. It still sounds like you had a great vacation but what an adventure!
I’m glad it worked out okay. I’ve been in one hurricane. Hugo in ’89. To me it was just like a big thunderstorm that came through at night. I slept through it and got to miss school for the next 3 days because there was no power. But our friends who lived 5 minutes away had power, so it was like an extended sleepover with the whole family.
An extended sleepover sounds pretty darn fun.
That’s how our extended snow days in Canada felt!
Having grown up in Iowa, I weathered my share of natural disasters (pun totally intended).
One of my greatest fears is a tornado, and rightly so. My family is lucky to be alive, and I wrote about one that I’ll never forget as long as I live: http://thecasualperfectionist.com/2008/06/what-did-they-sound-like-before-there-were-freight-trains/
When we weren’t dealing with floods (The Floods of ’93) in Des Moines, we also lived through a drought. In the 80s, our well ran dry, and my dad had to haul water from town (the closest town was 7 miles away, and it was a tiny town). Water is such a precious resource, and I know that I take it for granted now.
There were also the blizzards that would shut off electricity and all contact with the outside world for days on end.
The Midwest doesn’t grow wussies, that’s for sure!
Good gravy–that’s nuts. But could you survive frozen nose hairs?
I *have* survived frozen nose hairs. I mean, that was just the by-product of a fun afternoon of sledding in sub-zero weather.
So your daughter didn’t *quite* live up to her name? And she had competition?
So glad you were safe. Your mom is a wise woman!
At least Earl was not too strong as expected-I would’nt survive any extreme climate!
You mean your daughter has namesake competition?
Glad you were safe, and glad that your mom was so foresightful.
(And I’m wishing just a leeeeeetle bit that you’d had more blog fodder.)
My brother was stationed in Biloxi, Mississippi during hurricane Katrina. From what he says it was crazy.
I love the Outer Banks
I lived and worked in Fort Lauderdale, Florida when Hurricane Andrew hit in 1992. Having grown up in the frozen north, I endured snow storms and like you, forzen nose hairs, so Hurricanes were different. I took the easy way out. After it got windy, I went to sleep– if I died, I didn’t want to be awake to watch it.
Had a tornado last year out at our land… getting hit in the head with a grapefruit sized hailstone is something you tend to remember
When Denver’s Blizzard of ’82 began, I was at my Aunt’s house, 5 miles from home, on Christmas eve. I couldn’t fathom being away from on home on Christmas so my neighbor came and drove me home in 17″ of snow and counting.
Hurricane Iniki, 1993 in Hawaii, was how we spent our honeymoon. We now have an 18 year old cat … named Iniki. In subsequent trips to Hawaii, we survived another hurricane (of a much lesser magnitude) and were “stuck” there on September 11, 2001.
I’ve survived 2 tornadoes. One at Colorado Blvd & I-25 in 1993, the second last year in Arvada.
Wow. That all sounds pretty bad. But I’m here to tell about it all. I will survive!
I’m sure at one time or another my house should have been declared a natural disaster!
Tina I like how you think.
Had to evacuate from Seaside Oregon twice during tornado warnings…luckily there was no real damage.
Well, I am glad nobody was hurt…it would be funny, except for the fact that it was so darned inconvenient. I like how you called it your stay in exile. So great your mom was reimbursed for that, too.
I guess spending the day in Virginia Beach doesn’t constitute “exile.”
Well, at least it was just Earl that ruined things this time…not Snooki.
LOL-curse Snooki. True story: when I was trying to think of a title for this post, I kept thinking about my last one how Snooki ruined my moment in the spotlight.
Earl did the same.
Hahaha! Laughing at Lauren’s Snooki comment.
I just couldn’t believe you were there when the hurricane hit! I was so bummed for you to possibly have to cut your vacation short. I’ve been once to the Outer Banks and it is hard to leave.
What a relief that your mother had the foresight to buy hurricane insurance! That’s definitely the upside.
As for natural disasters, I’ve never been through anything like a hurricane, though I did grow up in the nation’s hot spot: Lake Havasu City, AZ and have survived 127 degree summers! I was also here in Denver for the Blizzard of 2001. Couldn’t leave our house for 3 days.
Hurricane Katrina hit a little to close to home for us since my in-laws had to evacuate and drove up to St. Louis to stay with me while my husband was serving over seas. They brought all their most valuable possessions with them and were glued to the TV, 24 hours a day. We have relatives and friends who lost their homes and even some who lost their lives. We have one close friend whose story is so amazing, I wrote about a 2-part post on it: http://mamabirdsblog.com/2010/05/09/amazing-mom-%E2%80%93-michelle-survivor-from-cancer-to-katrina/
Hahaha! Laughing at Lauren’s Snooki comment.
I just couldn’t believe you were there when the hurricane hit! I was so bummed for you to possibly have to cut your vacation short. I’ve been once to the Outer Banks and it is so beautiful, it’s hard to leave. What a relief that your mother had the foresight to buy hurricane insurance and you were able to relocate the whole clan!
As for natural disasters, I’ve never been through anything like a hurricane, though I did grow up in the nation’s hot spot: Lake Havasu City, AZ and have survived 127 degree summers! On the opposite end of the spectrum, I was also here in Denver for the Blizzard of 2001. Couldn’t leave our house for 3 days. We had some nasty freezing winter storms in St. Louis that would leave us without power for days, and frozen, falling tree branches actually demolished our backyard shed once, but our house remained unscathed.
Hurricane Katrina hit a little to close to home for us since my in-laws had to evacuate and drive up to St. Louis to stay with me while my husband was serving in the Middle East. They brought all their most valuable possessions with them and we were glued to the TV, 24 hours a day. We have relatives and friends who lost their homes and even one who lost his life. He was trapped on his roof for 2-3 days, then had a heart attack being pulled into a rescue boat. We have one close friend whose story of survival and reunion is so amazing, I wrote a 2-part post about it here: http://tinyurl.com/2vr5nj3