Surviving Irene

As the weather maps showed Hurricane Irene inching closer and closer to South Carolina earlier this week, I was getting a little nervous. Charleston hasn't been hit by a major hurricane in 6 or 7 years and I was really hoping that didn't mean one was due. People around here still talk about the destruction of Hurricane Hugo and that hit the Lowcountry in 1989.

So early in the week, John and I stocked up on the hurricane essentials just in case. Unlike the bread and milk routine of Oklahoma's ice storms - hurricane hoarding is all about water and batteries.

Here's some of our loot. Lots of water, diet coke (of course) and some baby wipes — if we can't shower for a couple days I wanted some way to stay clean. We also got some canned food, which we stored in the pantry, filled our cars up with gas and got some cash from the ATM.

Turns out all our planning was for nothing though because Irene sailed on past Charleston without so much as a thunderstorm. Early Friday morning it started raining and we continued to get several showers throughout the day as rain bands from the hurricane came inland.

View of King Street from my office window during a downpour.

It stopped raining about 3 pm and that was all we got. Some power went out in some parts of Charleston because wind messed with the power lines. But let me tell you, the wind here from Irene was just a typical windy day in Oklahoma. It was nothing.

John got home from work early so we decided to go down to Folly to see what kind of waves Irene was kicking up.

Monsters! I've never seen waves so big on Folly Beach. John went in with the boogie board, but I was too scared. The waves looked huge and the current was too strong for me.

Here's a video I took that shows the waves a little more:

At high tide, the waves were pushing right up against the dunes near the houses. No more beach!

Me observing safely from my concrete perch

Several surfers were attempting to ride the waves. Some more successfully than others.