Carolina, here we come?
First, I hope that everyone made it through Hurricane Irene unscathed. I must say that the worst that happened here was a power outage that caused us to move our insulin to a neighbor's house becasue we lost power for so many hours. I know that others had it much worse and our hearts go out to you!
This last few days have been something...
When our part of Irene reached us it was mainly a lot of rain. We spent the first few hours watching the rain and being thankful that our house is on a bit of a hill. A few hours into the storm, things went batty!
Around 11pm there was a tornado warning. So we brought everyone to the first floor and camped out on sofa cushions. I'm not sure if I overreacted or not but I took a case of water, food and Arden's D-supplies into the basement just in case we ended up down there - which we never did.
At 1:15 am Arden's blood glucose dropped sharply and unexpectedly and let's just say that she didn't wake up in the best mood to deal with a #BGnow of 44. I too was not at my best...
2 am, power lost.
I began to miss our WiFi at 2:08 am.
In the light of the morning I walked the house as everyone slept and found that we didn't have any damage, just a ton of leaves and branches in the yard. Still without power I moved the Apidra and other cold D-supplies to our neighbor's generator backed up house.
But it's the rest of the day that you're interested in...
Information was tough to come by regarding our pending vacation in the Outer Banks or as we referred to it for a while, "the exact spot the hurricane made landfall". Most of the information we were able to get wasn't good. Roads are washed out, no water or power to the island and no word if our house survived the storm. To add insult to injury, I found a current photo online of the ocean in OBX and the sky is clear and sunny.
We all handled the news differently...
Kelly cleaned the house and had a very zen response, I furiously tried to get information and was spouting hair-brained plans for how to get to the beach (which if Kelly's face is any indication, got annoying). The kids are taking it in stride but I wish we could give them a more definite answer as to what's happening next.
Sunday evening after a lot of raking, we gave up and headed to one of our favorite resturants to come to terms with the idea that we lost our money and our much needed get away.
Then we got the craziest news...
Somehow the amazing people in that beach town restored the power... and the water... and they fixed the washed out roads! All in a day... An entry time of 10am on Tuesday has been set for vacationers. There is only one thing left to find out, did our house survive?
and we'll find that out in a few hours...
Part one of this series is located here.
We are watching an interactive map that the rental company provided. They are three houses away from ours and we haven't seen any houses that were uninhabitable yet. We should know very soon!
We are on the list! Let the packing re-commence. We are actually, going on our vacation!
Bags are packed, truck is loaded.
Hurricane Irene just crashed into our vacation!
So here I am, writing at my desk when I should be on my way to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. I had planned on doing a series of blog posts this week about caring for Arden during a warm weather vacation. The heat, activity, ocean water and sand all present new obsticles and I thought that the experiance would make an interesting conversation.
View from our deck - Outer Banks 2008
The first time that we visited the Outer Banks of North Carolina was a bit of a daunting experience. Between the extended car ride (about 10 hours), being so far from home, the heat and the overall concern that we may run out of diabetes supplies, our first OmniPod enabled vacation was a bit nerve-wracking. We made it through pretty well and even came out the otherside with what I thought was some solid advice that was worth sharing. I envisioned taking advantage of this new blogging platform and writing from the road this week as we journeyed back to the Outer Banks (OBX) for our summer ending vacation.
But things have changed...
Hurricane Irene made landfall near the southern tip of the Outer Banks at about 7:30 a.m. Saturday, with winds of about 85 mph as the storm trudged up the East Coast. link
So it seems that a hurricane has smacked into the amazing beach where we have rented an ocean front house for the week (pictured below).
Image from realtor of our 2011 rental
We haven't given up hope that we will see this house in person... here's our plan.
We aren't giving up just yet. As I write this the Outer Banks is being pummeled by Hurricane Irene and the area is understanably under evacuation orders. As soon as the weather passes OBX assesments of bridges, beaches and homes begin. If the governing body says that the beach is safe to re-enter and if the house that we rented is habitable, we are jumping in our car and heading to North Carolina! I don't know if we are being too hopeful, a bit stupid or a combination of the two but we aren't giving up.
So if you want to follow along with us as we wait, hope and perhaps make our way, just subscribe to the site by clicking on 'Arden's Day RSS' located under our Twitter feed to the right of this posting and you'll know each time that I've posted an update. I'll be writing about our Hurricane Irene vacation for the next seven days or as long as there is hope that we can reach our destination safely. We won't put ourselves in harm's way to make it to the Outer Banks and we realize that the heightened situation will present more issues for Arden but in the same breath, we also will not teach her that there are things beyond her reach because of her disease.
Arden at OBX in 2008
I hope that it goes without saying that our hearts go out to those affected by Hurricane Irene and we wish them Godspeed as the storm reaches their homes and beyond. As our house is also in the projected path, I'm including my family as well as yours in this wish.
Now we wait, both for the Hurricane to leave OBX and for it to arrive here at our home in New Jersey. This is going to be one crazy weekend... be safe!
In my mind I'm goin' to Carolina...