Hurricane Fran, September 1996, by John Gerard Tetel
From MemoryArchive
Who: John Gerard Tetel What: Hurricane Fran When: September 1996 Where: Durham NC
The North Carolina Outer Banks are often hit with a hurricane every season. But the mainland stays safe from the onslaught. The afternoon before the storm was suppose to hit, we had cross country practice anyway. We ran into the woods to begin our workout, but decided to come in when we saw the funnel clouds gather around us. I wasn't so much scared, perhaps because I had never confronted my mortality before, or perhaps because I trusted the judgment of my coaches, but the adrenaline running through my veins made me run faster than I thought possible. We immediately cut practice short and went home.
That night, the news was telling us to make sure and buy food and water because no one knew how long the power might be out for. We also could not neglect filling up our bathtubs with water, as well. My family did not heed their advice. I guess we figured that we live in a pretty civilized society and that we could survive without a few modern conveniences for a little while. We thought that the infrastructure couldn't really be destroyed from one hurricane that we would have to do all of that. We figured that the most the city would be out for would be a couple of days at the most.
The eye of the storm passed right overhead during the middle of the night. I can't believe that I slept right through it. Apparently my dad and friends woke up and described the event as the most peaceful they had ever seen their backyards. However, when I awoke I would have never guessed. Trees had been uprooted. Branches and leaves littered the street. I even saw some pine needles stuck in tree trunks. The wind had blown so hard that the needles had enough force to jam into the bark.
Trees had knocked down power lines leaving the city without electricity. Needless to say, school was canceled. I wouldn’t go back for over a week. Instead, I wandered around the town. No one was out. I think people were scared about their safety. With down power lines, the threat of electrocution was imminent. It was strange to see the streets barren during the middle of the day.
Every so often we would see a car pass. After a couple of days, my friends and I got our parents to drive us places. We went to places like the Waffle House because they had hot food and coffee because they used generators and thus had electricity. Home Depot’s parking lot was packed. People didn’t stop buying generators for their own homes.
Life became normal little by little. I started going to school again; my parents went off to work. The streets were cleaned up and the power company hooked people up so that most people had electricity after a couple of weeks. However, it took years before paths in the woods stopped showing signs of the storm.
I found it particularly interesting how this affected my neighbor’s mentality. They bought tools and appliances that only apply to North Carolinians for hurricanes, such as the generators. They also named the new Hockey team the Hurricanes. I didn’t understand this because, in years past they didn’t really affect us and it rarely changed our lifestyle since then.
