OT - Hurricane Fran

[NoMich]

It was 20 years ago today that Hurricane Fran hit NC. It hit us in the Triangle pretty hard but without that storm, we could be cheering on the Carolina Ice Hogs. Or the Carolina Ice Clays. Or the Carolina Tar Pack Devils. Or the Carolina Ice Hawgz. But definitely not the Carolina Ice Jeffbears.

 

[LJG]

It was 20 years ago today that Hurricane Fran hit NC. It hit us in the Triangle pretty hard but without that storm, we could be cheering on the Carolina Ice Hogs. Or the Carolina Ice Clays. Or the Carolina Tar Pack Devils. Or the Carolina Ice Hawgz. But definitely on the Carolina Ice Jeffbears.

What's this "we" white man???? I'd rather be sodomized than pull for a tar anything.

Hard to believe it's been 20 years. Still remember getting at my coffee beans that morning with my 20 oz. Hart framing bean smasher and being glad I had a gas stove. No problem at my house but could not see one neighbors lawn for the trees down and one had a branch impale her bed. Then off to the beach to help my sister clean up for the second time that summer.

 

[andyt]

What's this "we" white man???? I'd rather be sodomized than pull for a tar anything.

Hard to believe it's been 20 years. Still remember getting at my coffee beans that morning with my 20 oz. Hart framing bean smasher and being glad I had a gas stove. No problem at my house but could not see one neighbors lawn for the trees down and one had a branch impale her bed. Then off to the beach to help my sister clean up for the second time that summer.

We had a straight line wind come through part of my neighborhood and affected about 7 of the 102 houses. Unfortunately, it came straight through my back yard and dropped 23 pine trees, including 3 that pierced the roof. Other than the power outage, the people at the other end of the neighborhood wouldn't have known anything was wrong. They also got their power back in about 36 hours, since they were on the same circuit as a fire station. We didn't get power back for 8 days. Since I have a well, that also meant no water. A neighbor who ran a concrete company dropped one of his water tankers on my street so that we could load up for toilet flushing. My company also came through with 4000 watt generators for those of us with no power after 5 days. At least we were able to run extension cords into the house and run a small TV to keep the kids occupied and run a couple of portable fans, since the temperature was in the 90s all week after.

 

[TheBigKahuna]

The heat was the miserable part for me. My apartment took no damage. But we lost power for 7+ days. The kicker is, when they finally sent a truck and they unlocked the green box, threw a breaker and turned it back on. We had all underground utilities, and ours was the only building in our complex without power. The green box was between us and the next building up. Took all of 5 minutes to restore our power when they finally got around to it.

 

[jeffbear]

But definitely not the Carolina Ice Jeffbears.

Correct. Or at least I freaking hope so.

20 years is both a long danged time ago and yet sometimes it seems like a few minutes ago. Depends on the day and your perspective.

We were in the process of buying a house when Fran hit. Right at that awkward phase when you haven't formally sold the old place or formally closed on the new one ... but you have skin in both games, so you're sort of responsible for both, at least mentally. We were blessed to have only minor limb related damage at both locations, although it certainly took me half a day to make my way over storm ravaged roads from West Cary to North Raleigh to confirm this. My only real personal loss was my gold wedding band ... gone into the ether somewhere in a back yard in Cary; lost while chain sawing up limbs that fell on my soon to be former neighbor's deck. Yeah, we were without power for awhile, but so was virtually everyone else. Camp stoves, man ... even more handy in a storm than they are out on the trail. I was tremendously fortunate compared to many, and with two kids aged 3 and 5 at the time, that fortune meant the world. You'd trade all the property damage on earth so that your kids are OK.

 

[NoMich]

I was living on Wade Ave at the time, between Dixie Trail and Brooks, and we were without power for two bloody weeks. I think we were about the last part of the city to get back on the grid.

Somebody filmed our neighborhood the morning after the storm.

[video=youtube;Q7IlFxlvlLA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7IlFxlvlLA[/video]

 

[SlapShots]

I was working in a Red Cross shelter in eastern NC during Fran. The shelter was in a rural high gym. We lost power early. Then we had some windows blow out and then a piece of the gym roof peeled back. Scary! Once the storm was over and the all clear was given, I was able to find my way home among all the downed power lines and trees. I got to my home which was OK, but power was off. I packed up some food that hadn't defrosted, grabbed some clothes and went to stay with friends whose house was on the same grid as the local hospital and had power.

For the next week, the flooding wrecked havoc- the city was completely surrounded, no one could get in or out, and this lasted about one week. Because I was staying in town near the hospital, I was not cut off or isolated. I carried the emergency Mental Health beeper and bag phone. We had to use the National Guard to get us across flood waters to check our patients staying in various shelters in the area to make sure our patients were stable and had meds and at night I'd be in the emergency room trying to divert patients unless we had no other choice-- the psych units and detox/SA treatment facilities in the east were closed and we were diverting only the most urgent/emergent cases to western NC as Raleigh/central region were at capacity. If we did have to hospitalize one of our patients, we had to use a network of sheriff deputies and national guard to get folks out of town and into hospital across the state.

It was one long week, but showed me that people can and will really pull together to be helpful and do the right thing.

 

[jeffbear]

I was living on Wade Ave at the time, between Dixie Trail and Brooks, and we were without power for two bloody weeks. I think we were about the last part of the city to get back on the grid.

I know that area well, having lived there for most of college and a few years thereafter. That's old tree central, even by Raleigh standards. That area and the areas off of Lassiter Mill and Anderson Dr got just hammered by tree damage. We had a project across from the old Lassiter mill at the time and it took a good three days for our guys and the Raleigh FD to chop and clear their way in there on the main road.

For reference, I've seen worse hurricane damage in my time. Andrew ripped virtually every roof off of entire communities in Florida and we worked cleanup and repair jobs for half a year afterwards. Hugo cut a path of damage that was just amazing to see, but mostly through rural wooded areas. Fran? Man ... she took dead aim on a major city WELL inland. That doesn't happen much. Floyd was also a beeotch, but that thing was more notable for the fact that it just went dead up the eastern seaboard without losing steam. Hazel was before my time (1954) but remains the only Cat 5 to make landfall in NC and was just devastating to the farming and market communities of rural Eastern NC. Fran ... it was almost as if she was made to clobber Raleigh specifically.

 

[NoMich]

I was working in a Red Cross shelter in eastern NC during Fran. The shelter was in a rural high gym. We lost power early. Then we had some windows blow out and then a piece of the gym roof peeled back. Scary! Once the storm was over and the all clear was given, I was able to find my way home among all the downed power lines and trees. I got to my home which was OK, but power was off. I packed up some food that hadn't defrosted, grabbed some clothes and went to stay with friends whose house was on the same grid as the local hospital and had power.

For the next week, the flooding wrecked havoc- the city was completely surrounded, no one could get in or out, and this lasted about one week. Because I was staying in town near the hospital, I was not cut off or isolated. I carried the emergency Mental Health beeper and bag phone. We had to use the National Guard to get us across flood waters to check our patients staying in various shelters in the area to make sure our patients were stable and had meds and at night I'd be in the emergency room trying to divert patients unless we had no other choice-- the psych units and detox/SA treatment facilities in the east were closed and we were diverting only the most urgent/emergent cases to western NC as Raleigh/central region were at capacity. If we did have to hospitalize one of our patients, we had to use a network of sheriff deputies and national guard to get folks out of town and into hospital across the state.

It was one long week, but showed me that people can and will really pull together to be helpful and do the right thing.

Outstanding work, Slappy. I can only imagine that was a pretty rough week, not only for you and your job, but for the patients as well. So, a big hearty "thank you" for your service to those that need it most.

 

[jeffbear]

Yup. Also remember the Fire Departments of the Raleigh metro area. Those guys were just killing themselves trying to get enough tree damaged cut and cleared to allow the power crews to do their thing. They went HARD for 10+ days.

 

[StormChaserBH]

Fran's a weird one for me -- yes I lived here, yes I was a homeowner, but very little memory of Fran itself -- we had coincidentally planned a long vacation to take our newborn on her first trip to meet her Yankee relatives and were out of town for the whole thing and several days of the aftermath. Called back to a neighbor to make sure our home looked ok (which it was, save for some water damage under the front door when we returned), and our neighborhood, being 5-year old construction in the open ex-farmlands of Cary had mostly only the new-ish ornamental trees, so not much cleanup. Much respect to all who lived through it way more than I.

 

[andyt]

I know that area well, having lived there for most of college and a few years thereafter. That's old tree central, even by Raleigh standards. That area and the areas off of Lassiter Mill and Anderson Dr got just hammered by tree damage. We had a project across from the old Lassiter mill at the time and it took a good three days for our guys and the Raleigh FD to chop and clear their way in there on the main road.

For reference, I've seen worse hurricane damage in my time. Andrew ripped virtually every roof off of entire communities in Florida and we worked cleanup and repair jobs for half a year afterwards. Hugo cut a path of damage that was just amazing to see, but mostly through rural wooded areas. Fran? Man ... she took dead aim on a major city WELL inland. That doesn't happen much. Floyd was also a beeotch, but that thing was more notable for the fact that it just went dead up the eastern seaboard without losing steam. Hazel was before my time (1954) but remains the only Cat 5 to make landfall in NC and was just devastating to the farming and market communities of rural Eastern NC. Fran ... it was almost as if she was made to clobber Raleigh specifically.

I remember the days before Floyd, bracing for another round. Floyd followed almost the exact path as Fran, until just before it made landfall, then made a small turn northeast. Saved the Triangle, but man, the areas just east of 95 were devastated by flooding. Pretty much the entire town of Tarboro was under water.

 

[LJG]

I remember the days before Floyd, bracing for another round. Floyd followed almost the exact path as Fran, until just before it made landfall, then made a small turn northeast. Saved the Triangle, but man, the areas just east of 95 were devastated by flooding. Pretty much the entire town of Tarboro was under water.

That was the only time we ever had water get through one of our hundred or so EIFS clad buildings. JB will probably be the only person here that knows WTF I just said!

After Fran, my power and cable were back on within a day. Must have lived on the downtown government complex grid since I was in Oakdale at the time.

 

[jeffbear]

That was the only time we ever had water get through one of our hundred or so EIFS clad buildings. JB will probably be the only person here that knows WTF I just said!

Needed some of that expensive drainage mat behind the foam.

Now NOBODY knows what either of us are talking about. But let it be said for posterity that I both love and hate EIFS as a cladding material.

 

[jeffbear]

I remember the days before Floyd, bracing for another round. Floyd followed almost the exact path as Fran, until just before it made landfall, then made a small turn northeast. Saved the Triangle, but man, the areas just east of 95 were devastated by flooding. Pretty much the entire town of Tarboro was under water.

Yup. That gave us the lingering nightmare that was the Princeville flooding.

And from what I know from older relatives, Floyd's damage was nothing compared to Hazel back before emergency management crews were so well equipped and mobile. Back in the 50s those Eastern plains farming communities were just so isolated from the rest of the State.

 

[dwind]

Needed some of that expensive drainage mat behind the foam.

Now NOBODY knows what either of us are talking about. But let it be said for posterity that I both love and hate EIFS as a cladding material.

Stucco?

 

[jeffbear]

Stucco?

In the vernacular, yes ... sort of.

Exterior Insulation and Finish System = EIFS
Typically the finish on EIFS is synthetic, whereas the finish on proper stucco is portland cement-based. Plus, stucco can be applied over pretty much anything ... brick, block, whatever.

 

[*AH*]

Fran: We had been out in the torrential downpour and went to bed about 11:00 still not expecting a real hit on us. With the intensity building I knew and said we need to move downstairs. I went solidly OUT - knowing. I had been thru 3 coastal and two inland hurricanes. Wife says she understood how I could sleep thru Fran but not how I slept through Barbara. She was up all night terrified. Trees falling all over - we're in an old growth forest w/ 130+ foot trees. That 8" of rain loosened many and the wind pushed 'em over like nothing. We were incredibly fortunate. One huge limb from a beech by the upper deck fell in such a way that it only took out a light by the back door. Nothing else ON the house. But another huge beech dropped a limb larger than many trees thru the neighbor's roof onto an unoccupied bed. We loved that 100+ y/o tree but it had to go along with dozens of others. I could go on... This was the first I had to deal with as the responsible adult. And I was over 50 then.

Hazel: I still remember it rather well. We went to school - I was in 7th grade at Mt. Vernon but moms were listening and came in droves to get us kids. We were only a mile away but it hit in full force as we drove into the garage. Dad was out of town. To an 11 y/o it was actually exciting!

Isabelle and Irene were the worst I've had to deal with at the coast. Nightmares!