Wish us well, folks, Hurricane Florence is bearing down on the NC coast as a cat 4-5 and looks like it will move inland before heading north.Might turn and come right over us.

It could inflict the hardest hurricane punch the Carolinas have seen in more than 60 years, with rain and wind of more than 130 mph (209 kph). North Carolina has been hit by only one other Category 4 storm since reliable record keeping began in the 1850s. That was Hurricane Hazel in 1954. It came north over New England, still as a hurricane – I remember going outside of my childhood home during the lull of the eye as it passed over.

We have had our share of ‘F’ storms – Fran came ashore in much the same way and did more than a hundred thousand dollars damage to our house, cars and property. It was almost two years before everything was restored. We had one tree through the back of our house, three on the roof (which luckily didn’t break the main beam), all three cars flattened, and $40k worth of tree removal just to be able to get out of our driveway. No power for more than three weeks, a ton of water damage in the house, and a blue tarp roof for thirteen months.

With Floyd we personally were more lucky – the main damage to the state was to the east with horrific flooding. Sadly, some towns have not recovered to this day.

I am terrified of high winds…

Say a prayer and keep your fingers crossed for us. And especially for the folks living on the coast.