We survived

Those of us in the south have experienced Hurricane Irene. Palmico county has been hit hard by this cat 2 storm, a storm that was measured at 750 miles wide. Here in Oriental, we experienced high winds, some say it was 110+ to 134+ winds, water was 5-9 feet during the surge and the rainfall after was incredible.
Hardest hit were the marinas here, most boats were damaged but cosmetically. Our boat Legacy was out at anchor in the lowest part of the south river about 10miles from Oriental. Legacy did great in southwest creek with no damage and just a few chafed lines.
When we started watching Irene, we saw she was taking the same path we normally cruise to the USVIs, and knew she was heading here.  We moved the boat thursday, striped the canvas off and battened down inside and outside of the boat, we put in the fiberglass door entry boards and locked her up.
Friday am about 8am we set off, Aubrey drove, while I sat in the front of the dingy with our dog Uraine and headed to shore. After10+ miles of riding from the boat to the marina we got off at Whittaker point marina and got showers, packed the car and headed to our friends home in town.
After showers, Aubrey took the dingy down the creek to Whittaker creek marina where there is a dingy  lift and put the dingy and motor on shore, with the help of several strong men.
With the boat secure, the dingy tied to a tree (as water rose there about 10ft) we set off to our friends, unpacked our things and hunkered down.
About 8pm on Friday, we lost our power till 8pm Monday night when it was restored. At the onset of the hurricane, the electrical poles down highway 55 had bent over and fallen on the road and many transformers had blowen up. This is why the power went off, we were cut off.
Highway 55 is the only main road out of Oriental, since I couldn't get through it, I turned down Kershaw Road and went to the back way, it only goes thru Arapaho and up to highway 304 where it joins into Bayboro, the next town up. Those roads were closed.
Sunday a friend and i went that route taking photos and going for supplies in New Bern. Once you got to Highway 70 the power was on, gas stations had lines around the block, police blocked intersections and directed traffic.
ON the way back we went down highway 55 and had to go under the downed electric poles near Kershaw road, a very scary experience..
Roads here were flooded, trees down everywhere and damage like a bomb hit this area, but once the daylight was out, people were out surveying the damages and getting to clean up. Today garbage was collected, but not wood or tree limbs.
Aubrey is on the boat now cleaning it and getting it ready to board soon, right now our problem is the marina lost 90% of its finger piers and many tall piling poles are loose, so its not safe yet.
Our friend lost his sailboat, it sank, another old wooden power boat sank, its very sad.
People who live on boats, where its there home and refuge are devastated when they experience a huge loss such as this.
I will write more on damages and post photos as i can get them onto my computer, stay tuned, were still not out of the woods yet, a new storm is on the way up. Her name is Katta..