Hurricane Matthew paid us a visit in Chapel Hill, NC today--150 miles from the coast!
We have a lot of trees and overhead power lines that are very susceptible to wind and rain. It was blowing here--gusts up to 40 mph according to weather guys--
and I saw/heard a tree go down on the hill below our house. I also could see from our back deck a tree that was snapped in half with the upper portion at a 90 degree
angle to the trunk.
I had given my husband an early birthday present--4 tickets to the UNC/VA Tech football game today--and he was going with the guys. They decided to watch the game
on TV here instead. About 4 pm the power went out and they decided to go over to the stadium and sit in the rain to watch the game! He came home SOAKED!
I waited for a break in the rain bands to take Snowy out for her dinnertime walk. I was nervous about falling branches the entire time. There was a woman who was
killed here in Chapel Hill out walking her dog during a thunderstorm a year or so ago when a tree fell on her.
We had candles lit in the fireplace and positioned around the living room. Figured it would be an early night. We were watching some lightning out the windows in
the distance and pop--LIGHT! Yay. Power back on in only 4 1/2 hours. So far, no trees on the house (knock on wood). It's still raining but the wind has settled down
quite a bit. It's supposed to stop raining around 4 am.
Hurricane Matthew has been a real monster. We never expected to feel the effects of it 150 miles inland.
On edit: adding a photo I took last spring off our back deck--about 20 feet off the ground-- just to give a feel for the size of trees we have on our hill. When they start swaying in a 40 mph gust, they definitely catch your attention!
= new reply since forum marked as read
