Day to Day: Isaias and us

Our return trip to the beach was more interesting than we had intended! It started like this…..

And by day two, it looked like this…

6:30 a.m. – The literal “calm before the storm”

6:52 p.m.

7:52 p.m. – 45 minutes before high tide + landfall

8:50 p.m. – Same dock seen in the picture above

The water began washing over the bulkhead and flooding the streets around 8:30 p.m.

We left town knowing Tropical Storm Isaias was brewing. The morning of our departure, it appeared that Florida would take the brunt of it, and we would have a day of rain as the storm skirted the east coast. On our second morning, we awoke to a slightly more concerning forecast. Isaias would make landfall around Charleston (121 miles to our south) as a Category 1 and would reach us mid-afternoon as a tropical storm at low tide. We discussed leaving but ultimately determined we could ride it out.

As the day progressed, the storm’s timeline kept getting pushed back. Around 2 p.m., it became clear that Charleston would be spared, landfall would be within miles of us, and Isaias would arrive as a Category 1 at high tide during a full moon. Oh boy. By that time, leaving was out of the question. We were a two hour drive away (on low lying back roads) from the nearest interstate, and riding out the storm in our car in the dark was decidedly unappealing.

Speaking of the car, it became our primary concern. Thankfully, we coordinated with other vacationers in the building to relocate all of the cars to a parking garage with slightly higher elevation. This turned out to be the right call! Our van certainly would have been flooded and many, many cars around us were.

In the end, Isaias made landfall a few blocks from our condo, and it was the 3rd worst flooding on record for Cherry Grove. Homes with first floors at ground level reported waist-deep water inside. The wind was certainly the scariest part for us hurricane newbies, but our condo is well-built and the power stayed on. Abby and Caleb slept through the worst of the wind and rain, and we all were able to sleep by 11 p.m. knowing the danger had passed.

The morning after

Before the storm, the dunes extended up to the trash cans on the left.

Miles wanted to describe the next morning in his own words: (He also did the typing!)

“The next morning, from our deck, we saw that there was no dock! We quickly ate breakfast and headed down. Under our building, there was tons of sand! We found the dock in the little lot between buildings A and C! The pool had: dirty pull-ups, a large pipe, bags, Capri-Suns,™ Coca-Cola cans, dirt and sand in it! You couldn’t even see the bottom! It took the pool person 2-3 days to clean it all up!

We took a little walk around the place and we saw lots of siding and shingles. There was a guy who left his car out in the storm and then, POP!!!!! One of the airbags popped right in his hands.

My dad and I went on a walk and saw tons of docks broken and twisted and porch stairs broken! We went down to the front beach and the sand dunes were gone! There was a big chunk of the pier gone and little wood chips were washed up in every wave. (almost) That same day they started cleaning up the pier mess.”

After a morning of surveying the damage, our vacation resumed!