Surviving Hellene’s Wrath
Timeline of Events Pt 1
October 13, 2024
I’ve managed to write a little something every day through this ordeal, but it has taken me this long to be able to go back and read what I wrote in my journal as it was happening. This has been an emotionally exhausting experience and it would be almost a week before I realized just how devastating this storm really was. As of this writing, we are still without power as are at least 5,000 others in our electric cooperative area. We do have a generator that has saved our food supply and we’re able to finagle things in the breaker box to have a couple lights, fans, and wifi. We just figured out if we turn everything off for an hour and just turn on the hot water heater breaker…we can have quick, hot showers. We are doing fine. Praying power is restored to us within the week. I believe we’re at the end of a line and there are so many power lines down in this area, but all poles do appear to be intact. Our prayers are with those affected by this monster HELLene especially in the poor Appalachian region of Tennessee and western North Carolina.
Wednesday 9.25.24
Storm coming in…Helene.
Thursday 9.26.24
Preparing for Helene. Fill vehicles up with gas. Fill all gas jugs for generator. Fill containers of water. Tie down the chicken tractor.
Spent time wandering in my swamp and came home with this on my mind.
Prayer for Helene:
Come my swift moving darling, Helene
Bring us rain—but not too much.
May your winds blow the worrisome thoughts from my mind,
But leave all the trees standing upright.
Trees—oh sweet leafed friends,
Root yourselves deeply and be flexible to the winds but don’t break.
Rivers—drink thirstily, rise hastily, wash away our worries and fears to the tributaries and ocean beyond.
Critters—hunker down, stay in your burrows and nests until she swiftly passes.
Friday 9.27.24
Up since 2AM when Hurricane Helene arrived with her whipping winds. Power out at 3AM.
I got up and sat in the glider rocker and rocked in steady prayer. Heart-shaped quartz palm stone gripped tightly. If that wasn’t a glider rocker, surely there would have been a hole in the floor.
It was pitch black, dark and muggy. The wind was howling like a nonstop freight train and it sounded like someone was running back and forth across our roof.
I caught myself breathing rapidly and shallow. I made myself take slow deep breaths as I continued to rock and pray. I was fighting the urge to get in my car and check on things down at the swamp sanctuary.
Both Ruby and Roscoe, our dogs, were restless at my feet. Ruby finally got back in bed with hubby and the cats. Around 4AM things quieted down enough that I threw on a jacket and ran around the yard with a flashlight checking on the critters and any damage. I didn’t see any major structural damage and all the critters seemed to be alive and well.
Around 6AM I was worn out and decided to lay down and I slept until daybreak around 7AM.
My first thought when I opened my eyes was:
WE WEREN’T PREPARED FOR THIS.
I got up and got dressed and was headed to the swamp but noticed there was a power line hanging low across our driveway and a loaded livestock hauler was stopped a few feet beyond it. I could hear the mooing of the cows within. The driver was out of the truck and appeared fine, so I decided to check on my son and his family at the back of our property.
There were two trees down at his house. The old hickory tree and a holly. The hickory grazed the back of his home and crushed his outbuilding but no damage to his home. He followed me down to the swamp as we drove through the ditch to get out onto the highway. In the one mile between the two places, there were at least five huge trees down across the power lines and one was across the dirt road, so we parked and walked the rest of the way.
We looked over at the neighbor’s on the left, her little home appeared intact. As we walked around the bend to Grandpa’s old river house, I was shocked how much open sky there was because there were so many trees missing. There were two huge trees on power lines down there. It looked like a tornado had come through the swamp but all the structures were still standing with minimal damage.
After leaving the river, I headed toward the interstate—still hoping this was just an isolated tornado in my area that caused all this devastation but I was shocked to find trees down all the way to the interstate and when I looked up and down the interstate. Complete destruction.
Shock and fear began to set in. Adrenaline kicking in. Fight or flight mode engaged.
Video Footage from a cousin in a neighboring community, Covena, of a demolished pecan orchard.
Blessings y’all
💜B💜
This is very much my experience as well.
I can relate...from the city aspect in a suburb of Greenville, SC. I did a lot of praying and singing to the elements and to Helene. I was so lucky here because we have a small Comission of Public Works. Power restored in a little over a day (and with an apology for taking so long). I was on the eastern side of this and fared far better than the other side of Greenville and certainly a great deal better than the tragic, apocalyptic experience in the mountain where the rivers, lakes and creeks were already saturated from Thursday's feeder bands. (we were not in them here at all). But the grief hit me and felt so lethargic and tired for more than a week (I didn't know I could grieve for places until now). And then my former area of living, Florida, got another nightmarish storm hit. My friends in Miami and Palm Beach Coutny were okay after white knuckling over 125 tornado warnings for the state. There had been a parade of tornadoes moving up from Miami and Fort Lauderdale, skipping over my former towns and touching down in western Palm Beach County and St. Lucie County. Devastation. So...do we have this to anticipate? Crazy storms like never before become the new normal? I pray this is not the case. Glad to hear you are okay and sharing your feelings, too.