Chased away by Hurricane Floyd
It was early September 1999. We had rented a cottage at Nags Head North Carolina for two weeks. Early and mid September is a great time of the year on the Carolina Shore. Beaches are not crowded. No lines at the eateries and rental prices are sufficiently lower so that you can get two weeks for the price of one in season. The weather is great with sunshine and tranquil seas and skies. The second week of September is also the peak of the hurricane season in the Atlantic although many years especially back then you could get by with the storms taking paths into the Gulf or striking Florida and leaving the Outer Banks storm free.
Off the coast of Africa were many storms begin a small disturbance formed on September 7th 1999. It slowly churned across the Atlantic and began to intensify into a tropical storm. The storm continued to grow and eventually acquired a name: Floyd and became a hurricane. Floyd took aim at the Bahamas much as our just recent storm Dorian did and caused untold destruction. Floyd had his sights set on Florida and slowly churned toward the Peninsula and just like Dorian it slowed to a craw and stalled just off the coast. People in Florida were told to get out of harm鈥檚 way and they did just that as they headed northward. After stalling Floyd decided to also go northward and took aim at Georgia and South Carolina Once again coastal areas were evacuated and this added many more people heading north and west to escape the storm. Floyd missed Florida, Georgia and South Carolina and finally made landfall near Wilmington North Carolina as a category 2 storm. Meanwhile 3 million people were under mandatory evacuations and many of them ended up stuck on interstates that became flooded and hundred mile traffic jams, with no motels available.
Nags Head also ordered a mandatory evacuation and the police came by and advised us to be gone by noon the next day. Listening to my wife who was up and packed by five we took off and headed inland. Rain was already falling and even heading west, the further we drove the heavier the rains fell and the winds increased. We drove about 100 miles inland and decided to get a motel in Franklin, Virginia as we heard there were problems on the interstates. The weather forecast for Franklin was for lots or rain and moderate winds. We secured one of the last rooms available and settled in to ride out the storm. Franklin was not in the direct path of Floyd but did receive over 12 inches of rain in a 24 hour period. The most rain I had ever witnessed in 24 hour was just over 4 inches at our weather station at Chalk Hill. Streets quickly flooded and roads began to close. Just about everything closed. During the night water flooded the parking area of the motel and started coming into our room. The power went out and outside the rains was torrential and coming sideways. Morning finally came and I was able to wade over to the office for coffee and a few donuts. The coffee was made on a Coleman cook stove. The motel was able to move us to a second floor room as some employees from nearby businesses were being evacuated by a small boat. We felt much better on the upper floor and spent the day sharing food and stories with other guests and listening to weather reports on the car radio which I had parked on the highest mound I could find. The next day the rains were over and the sun was out and we were comfortable in finding out we would be able to go back to Nags Head to finish our vacation as the Outer Banks had received less than an inch of rain and only minor damage. Our realtor assured us that our cottage was OK.
Floyd killed 76 people and did 6.5 billion in damage mostly from flooding. Interstate 95 was closed between Petersburg and Emporia Virginia and every river basin in eastern North Carolina exceeded their 500 year flood. 24.06 inches of rain fell at Southport NC. And the storm surge at Long beach was a 15 foot wall of water. Floyd brought heavy rains even to Pennsylvania, New York and New England. 12 inches of rain fell at Marcus Hook, PA and killed 13 people. The interesting thing about our experience was that Nags Head had only 1.21 inches of rain and Cape Hatteras had less than an inch. Hurricane Floyd died on September 19th and because of the death and destruction the name Floyd was removed and placed on the retired storms list. We returned to our cottage and completed our vacation. I had also taken the vacation insurance when we rented as I was aware of the fact that we were renting at the peak of the hurricane season.