The Great Flood of 1999

Well kids in September of 1999 there were several major hurricanes that hit eastern NC within weeks of each other with one just sitting still over the ocean.  What this caused was major rain storms for a couple weeks and the major rain saturated the ground.  So when the final one "Floyd" hit us we had the 100 year flood.

It was unbelievable how much damage a flood can cause and I will show you some pictures over the next few days.

Today is all about our neighborhood and the lake.  We were very fortunate and did not have any damage to our house but we were locked in to our neighborhood.  One of the worse things that came out of the flood were the animals.  You are not allowed to take animals to shelters so a lot of people not knowing any better tied up their pets and evacuated...unfortunately most drowned.  Cattle, horses and hogs were also left to fend for themselves...no choice. 

At the end of our street

 

 

 

The backyard of the house across the street from us

 

We had just bought the lake place and our first weekend was Labor Day Weekend...the storm hit September 15th.  The wood you see laying in the gully was in the water and the jet ski's were on it.  I was too nervous to keep them on there during the storm so I made your mother go with me to take them out of the water.  It was pouring down rain and I drove one and towed the other one to the boat ramp.  She had never towed a trailer before and was not happy I was making her do it.  Well as it turned out we would have lost the jet ski's if we didn't do it.

 

When the ground gets saturated with water and then the strong winds are added, trees fall over roots and all.  This was a trailer a few doors down from ours...ever since that happen I used to get nervous during all rain storms!

 

On the Friday after the storm there were boats all gathered together in the middle of the lake.  Most people (us included) never tied up their boats when they were on the lift and when the lake flooded it floated the boats right off the lifts.