Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Extreme Weather or Natural Disaster Experiences

 From Randy (my cousin) over at Genea-Musings:

it's Saturday Night - 

time for more Genealogy Fun!!!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1)  Did extreme weather or a natural disaster ever affect you or your ancestor(s)? In what way(s)? How did you find this out? Describe one or more of the extreme weather experiences in your own life or in your ancestors' lives.

2) Please share!

(Thank you to Marian B. Wood for this SNGF idea.)

Here's mine:

Living in Georgia and North Carolina most of my life, I have always just been hurricane-adjacent.  The hurricanes would hit but I lived too far away from the coast to get more than rain from them. 

We have tornados in Georgia, but I have been fortunate to never have one come through my home.

My mother grew up in California and while she remembers they had earthquakes, none of them were severe enough to cause damage.  

I have heard no stories from any of our family lines about a weather event or natural disaster anyone lived through.  

However, just a couple of years ago, Mom and I lived through something neither one of had every experienced or ever thought would happen.  Something I never want to experience again.  A hurricane came through Augusta.  We are 2.5-3 hours from the coast (130-165 miles approximately). However Hurricane Helene in September 2024 came right over us and continued up to Cherokee, Lake Lure, and other mountainous areas of North Carolina which are over 250-300 miles from the coast.  

I had literally just moved here 2.5 days before Helene hit.  In August 2024, I quit my job and made the decision to move back to Georgia to take care of my mom.  She had been through cancer treatment, a cat bite that almost cost her her legs, and just needed someone here to help.  I packed up my house, gave away or sold as much as I could, paid a moving company an obscene amount of money to move what was left here, and drove down the night of Tuesday, September 24.  I arrived about 11 pm and went straight to bed.  Wednesday was beautiful and full of sunshine.  Weather reports nor the news seemed concerned about this hurricane that was stirring.  It was in the Gulf.  So Mom and I were not even thinking about the weather.  We ran around that day, and I didn't even think about filling my car with gas.  

We woke Thursday morning, and it was pouring rain.  No biggie... we frequently get rain from the outer bands of hurricanes.  Except this was the day my movers chose to deliver my belongings.  Because of the rain, they were rushing to get done, so they threw my belongings in this house any old way.  It was a mess.  Boxes stacked 3-4 high in the living room.  Cubes that I use in my scrapbook room were stacked in the office upside down and to the ceiling.  Several things were broken.  Money went missing from our purses... In other words, my mind was on other things rather than a hurricane.

I am sure mom and I went to bed that night utterly exhausted.  I am a heavy sleeper, but the wind woke me Friday morning, September 27, about 4-5 a.m.  It was the strongest wind I had ever heard.  Trees were swaying and creaking, the power went out, and we were praying. 

I don't recall what time it was over, but the hellish aftermath was just beginning.  The next few days are mostly a blur of no power, no water, almost unbearable heat, and realizing how fragile we humans are without the basic necessities of life.  We couldn't get out of the neighborhood for a day or two; trees were down everywhere.  We were fortunate in that we had some large limbs down in our backyard, but nothing hit the house and nothing was damaged. A house across the street from us had a tree fall right through the house.  (They ended up tearing that house down and are just now in the midst of building another.) We tried to drive somewhere every day because that was the only way we could charge our phones.  Driving anywhere was an adventure in itself as you had to detour around trees everywhere.  Roads were blocked, and you would have to figure out another way to go. After the first day of driving, I had to park my car because I had not filled up after driving down from North Carolina, and gas stations were impossible the first couple of weeks after the storm.  Long lines, people fighting; it was nuts.  (Luckily, Mom had filled her car up before I arrived.) Stores were closed.  Convenience stores were not always open their usual hours.  The thing I remember being most difficult was getting ice.  It was sold out most everywhere.

Nights were the worst.  (Aren't they always?!)  We had no power so we would literally have to go to bed at dark.  It was so hot in the house which made it almost impossible to sleep. We couldn't open windows because the former owner had them painted shut. We couldn't open doors because of the cats.  We just had to deal with it.  

The one bright spot in all of the chaos was a friend of my mom's who cleaned out her freezer or take whatever her neighbors and friends brought from theirs, and cook for everyone.  She did that for several nights that first week.  I don't recall how she was able to do it powerwise, but she made it happen.  We would get hot food at least on those evenings.  Sallie is still a blessing in our lives.  

We were out of power for 5 or 6 days.  It came back on once just to go back out again for another day or so.  That was hard to take.  

However, we were blessed.  We had it so much better than a lot of people.  Many people in the area lost their homes or their cars from falling trees. Some people were without power a lot longer than we were. 

Eventually, roads got cleared and we could ride around and see how widespread the destruction was.  There are roads that don't even look the same anymore because so many trees were lost.  It literally changed the landscape of Augusta and the surrounding area.  

Things slowly got back to normal.  Life went on.  Now we have a story to tell.  

Oh, and I tell folks that's how Georgia welcomed me back home.