Not So Sweet Hanna

Two of the sweetest little girls I know are named Hanna. However right now there is another Hanna causing chaos around here –– tropical Hanna.

We have lived here two years and this is the first "direct hit" tropical storm that we will experience. Maybe this is God's funny way of preparing us for living on the coast in less than 6 months, who knows. We have gotten remnants before, but per the 11 pm news, the eye of Tropical Hanna is set to go right over the Raleigh area at about 8 am tomorrow morning. Yikes.

It started drizzling on and off after lunch. By 8 pm it had been raining enough for standing water on some roads. Now at 11 pm, winds are quickly starting to pick up and the radar looks something like this.
The worst of the storm should start around 4 am, where they are anticipating sustained winds of 40-50 mph for at least two to three hours, and over 5 inches of rain (better get out our pool floats). When it is all said and done it could be a mess around here. And to think, this is just barely a hurricane. I cannot imagine what it was like when Fran or Floyd hit here.

So I am tucked into bed with two flashlights, watching the news show live shots from Oak Island, the location of our annual family vacation for almost 10 years, and praying that everyone affected by this "not so sweet Hanna" is spared.

Okay Don't Pray For Rain

Tonight Matt and I dropped Emily off at practice and went to look at projection televisions. We had to goto the Sam's Club in North Raleigh to get the television Matt wanted. We were cutting close on time to pick Emily up so after we bought the tv I dropped Matt off at the house and went to pick Emily up.

Hallelujah! While we were at Sam's Club it started to rain. It wasn't raining when I left the house and drove to pick Emily up 15 minutes away. Since I was late in picking her up I didn't notice that I left my cell phone in the truck. Practice ran 15 minutes over so when we went out to the truck I heard my phone ringing. I answered to hear Matt screaming at me that there were tornadoes all around and he was scared to death because I didn't answer. At that point the weather was still fine where we were.

Emily and I started out for home. The sky was dark and the rain was just starting to fall. Everything then happened so quickly. We heard this horrible sound and the sky looked like I have never seen it. The rain was blinding and the power had gone out all around us. Practically the next street over was a funnel cloud in the sky. It looked something like this. (These are actual shots from where I live)


Emily was screaming, I was crying and trying to call Matt. We pulled into someone's drive and didn't know whether to stay put or goto the door. (Both could be dangerous, who knows who lives in the middle of nowhere) Matt said to stay put and if the sound got louder to get into the ditch. He then talked to Emily to try to calm her down. As luck would have it the phone cut out just about then so Emily was screaming "Daddy! Daddy!" I got Matt back on the phone and I think he may have been trying to make me not think about what was going on all around us because he then launched into telling me that our brand new flat screen tv was broken and we needed to return it. (At least I am hoping he was trying to do just that and not really worried about the dumb tv).

It took us almost an hour, but we made it back. Emily is tucked into bed (I guess all that screaming tired her out) and I am drinking a beer and getting ready to tag garage sale items for tomorrow. There are still storms headed our direction so I doubt I will be able to sleep. Who would have known that a hurricane that hit Texas would have such an impact all the way in North Carolina. But I guess on the bright side, I heard we got two inches of rain.

So the moral of the story is this –– Someone told me once to never pray for patience because God would give you something to be patient about. Never pray for rain either because who knows what form God will give it to you in. It may just be in a funnel cloud on the side of the road where two Jacobs' gals are scared to death.