Each Summer my mind drifts to what a hurricane season might bring. It’s hard to describe the feeling when one’s bearing down on you. Different hurricanes can have similarities, but no two are exactly alike. As strength increases, so does the anxiety.
Toward the end of August 1993, the fifth named storm was Emily and heading our way. On the 31st, it had strengthened to a category 3 with an eye about 50 miles wide, centered about 25 miles to the east of Cape Hatteras. That put Buxton and Frisco in the eye wall. The unofficial highest wind gust there was reported to be 107 miles an hour, but I’d venture a guess from hearing locals, it must have been much higher.
Boarding every window on my house, I hunkered down with Denise and close friend Tim Merritt. Tim had sent his wife and young son off island. I checked the barometer while getting a phone call from WTOP-TV in Washington, and gave an on the air live report. The barometer read 978 millibars. When the wind switched northwest, the water in Pamlico Sound rose quickly. There was flooding in Buxton and Frisco that almost never had that inundation before.
The next day after Emily passed, I drove south, noticing damage along the way.
The sound side of Buxton took the brunt of the storm with surge and winds of hurricane force.
Nearby the Scott Boatyard was shattered mobile home court.
Live oaks were uprooted rather than broken.
In Buxton Woods the cleanup was ongoing. Cars were flooded and pines snapped like matchsticks.
Crews from NCDOT and Cape Hatteras EMC had their work cut out for them.
Rob and Susan West were hard at work stacking cords of wood.
I visited Mark Nash in Frisco. His wife Barbara evacuated with their daughter while he stayed at home. His story how the tide came in from the Pamlico Sound when the wind backed out from the northwest was harrowing. Standing in knee deep water, he put on his wetsuit and climbed out the bathroom window on the lee side of the house. The waterline nearly came to the bottom of the window.
Emily is one of the top five storms I’ve experienced. I’m not the only one grateful to have gotten through this.