Each Summer my mind drifts to what a hurricane season might bring. It’s hard to describe the feeling when one’s bearing down. 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, Emily was heading our way. On the 31st, it strengthened to category 3 with an eye about 50 miles wide, centered 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 higher.
Boarding every window on my house, I hunkered down with Denise and close friend Tim Merritt. Tim had sent his wife, Karen and young son off island. I checked the barometer while getting a phone call from WTOP-TV in Washington, and gave an on-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, with around 10 feet of storm surge and high winds.
Near the Scott Boatyard, was a 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.
Rob and Susan West were stacking cords of wood.
I visited Mark Nash in Frisco. His wife Barbara evacuated with their daughter while he stayed home. His story, how the tide came in from Pamlico Sound when the wind switched, was harrowing. Standing inside with knee deep water rising, he put on his wetsuit and climbed out the bathroom window on the lee side of the house. The waterline came to the bottom of the window.
Perhaps one of the top five storms I’ve experienced, I’m not the only one grateful to have gotten through it.