Serving Barnwell County and it's neighbors since 1852
I was not prepared for Hurricane Helene. At all.
Last Tuesday I began the trek from my parents’ house in upstate New York back to Barnwell County after spending a week with family and friends. Attending my cousin’s baby shower (twins!) and going to a long-awaited music festival in Ohio were both folded into the trip, leaving me a bit disconnected from news for the first time in a long time.
With two dogs and a cat packed into a Volkswagen Jetta, we were prepared for the usual 13-hour journey. Long, boring, but doable with a couple good podcasts.
We were re-routed to go down Route 80 through Pennsylvania due to potential flooding on I-95. I knew about Helene’s arrival, but a fun mix of stubbornness, lack of news updates, and ‘a little rain never stopped me before’ mentality kicked in, so I kept driving.
Entering North Carolina was when I realized I made a mistake – 40 mph for three hours in torrential rain and I had developed a cold that I later learned to be COVID. My anticipated 13-hour drive jumped to nearly 17 by the time I pulled into Williston.
My canine and feline travel companions were not happy with my poor decision making as they dislike rain and long car rides equally, but were happy to finally pile into bed and sleep. To foreshadow, their opinions on me did not improve over the next couple days.
By the time I got some medicine and sleep, and began to feel a bit more human, the power was out. I groggily checked my phone and quickly realized it was going to be out for a while through a mix of both counterproductive and informative posts on Facebook.
I looked at my electric stove, thought of the little gas in my car, saw the freezer full of now thawing meat and the box of tissues I had already gone through, and immediately called my dad (even though he is in New York), because amidst every problem he can find a solution. However, even he was all out of ideas for me and couldn’t do much from the opposite side of the coast.
Step in Ed Crouch – the newspaper’s dedicated route manager, and the person who has served as my dad in the south for the past two and a half years. Like an angel in a newspaper van, one phone call and he was on his way to drop off a propane camp stove and other much appreciated provisions on my doorstep.
For the next two days, I could be found in my backyard hunched over that camp stove cooking chicken, ground turkey, pork chops, and more in a desperate attempt to save the stock of my freezer. It was already thawed enough and power was not yet restored, so I figured it was this or the trash can. This was also when I realized I need to rein it in when I’m in the freezer section at Aldi’s.
If my neighbors hadn’t left town before the storm, they would have seen quite the sight; A sneezing, coughing, sickly looking woman wandering in her backyard wearing a winter jacket to fight the fever chills, tongs and tupperware in hand, probably talking to herself, and nearly delirious from propane.
After giving away all that I could, I was now left with heaps of cooked meat and three animals who were still rather unimpressed with me and my lack of preparedness. Needless to say, finding a solution for all the meat and winning their favor back came hand-in-hand, and we saved a lot of kibble this past week.
All in all, don’t be like me. Prepare as much as you can for natural disasters and try not to drive directly into them. I owe my sanity and safety to my coworkers for helping me navigate this hurricane – the worst one I have experienced since moving here in May 2022.
I am grateful Barnwell County did not sustain catastrophic damage at large, and thus far there are no reported deaths or major injuries here locally.
Thank you to all the first responders, linemen, and anyone who has dedicated their time and energy to helping someone else. In times of crisis, you are the silver linings in an otherwise dark sky (literally).
