By Rahn Adams
To borrow a phrase from a famous Key West Florida
man, "trying to reason with
hurricane season" doesn't give a South Brunswick Islands resident much
peace
of mind six months out of the year.
My wife and I lived in Brunswick County for over
ten years. And even though we
loved being "natives"-- a term which for some reason is used mainly
to describe
permanent beach people-- we perfected the art of pulling up stakes
and hightailing
it for the hills on short notice.
Before I go any further , you might need to know
the local definition of at least one
other term that I've used: In Brunswick County, a "hill" is any slightly
elevated ground
where water doesn't stand after a steady rain. Sand dunes don't
count as hills, although
"islands" in the Green Swamp do. Go figure.
So when we were faced with our first honest-to-goodness
hurricane evacuation in
September 1989(Hugo), we headed for shelter in the hills of Shallotte,
which -- in case
you haven't noticed -- isn't exactly high and dry after any kind of
rain.
Many of our neighbors drove all the way to Fayetteville,
Lumberton, and Charlotte,
where Hugo ended up doing more damage than he did here. They would
have been
better off staying in Brunswick County, but off the beach, of course.
That's the thing about hurricanes, though. You never
know what they're going to do
once they near landfall. They could plough into the coast, then
do a loop-de-loop and
come inland, as Diana did in 1984. Or they could veer off course toward
the high seas.
Hurricane Fran made landfall and left her mark on counties to the north
of Brunswick and
Josephine followed close on her heels and caused even more damage due
to flooding
our already rain soaked area.
We recently went back to the beach for a visit and
saw damaged sand dunes and roofs
left by last year's Hurricane Bonnie. The yard of our old beach
house was missing many of
the colorful "Indian Blanket" Gallardia and Primrose flowers
that had bloomed in profusion
the year before. A sure sign that our little corner of the island
had experienced at least a
smalll amount of flooding from the canals.
We've had our share of storms that fizzled out before they got
to us, but we always secured the
house and boat, packed our bags and gassed up the cars to be ready
for evacuation if one were
ordered. When you live on the coast, it is wise to be prepared, whether
you're a Boy Scout or not.
And that's the way it goes on the islands until late
October or early November, when the
ocean water finally cools to below 80 degrees. You can't go swimming
then, but at least you
don't have to worry about having your house washed away in the next
storm.
Whoever said "life's a beach" didn't live on the beach during hurricane season.
Then again, maybe they did.