For all the hype the media has afforded to now dying Hurricane Bill, I recall those days when media coverage given beforehand to major tropical storms that directly affected the east coast of the U.S. was far less (like with Floyd shown in a 1999 photo above off the coast of Florida).
When Floyd sat off Florida as a CAT 4 storm, headed directly to where we were living near Wilmington, NC, we were about as "puckered up" as one can get. When my wife evacuated the barrier island in North Carolina where we were living, we kissed each other before she drove away from our elevated house about 600 meters away from the ocean, and said,"Farewell house, we'll not see you again."
I had to remain since I was the Town Manager of Holden Beach, NC and my serious work was about to begin. I grabbed my duffle bag of clothing and supplies from our boarded-up house and went to help finish the total evacuation of the island. That evening as we were shutting down the town, I watched large 20-30 foot waves crash over the main fishing pier in the center of the island, and that confirmed our belief that were were doomed to severe destruction. I then went to our off-island Emergency Operations Center with other municipal officials to wait out land-fall and passing of the storm.
As fortune would have it, Floyd lessened quite a bit before it hit us dead on, but the massive storm surge wiped out large portions of the main highway through town and washed away parts or all of several homes. Incredibly heavy and long lasting rains caused terrible flooding all through Eastern North Carolina. The main US Highway 17 between Wilmington and Myrtle Beach was closed in several spots, creating gridlock. Other minor roads were also flooded out. There were 57 fatalities. In all, it was the worst tropical storm to hit the region in years. It was, however, just one of three major storm hits and evacuations we experienced on Holden Beach that year.
So, when I see the media get all hot and bothered recently about Hurricane Bill, I sit back and say to myself, "You guys ain't seen nothin!"
