When I found out Hurricane Florence had become a category five and was on its way to the Carolina coast, evacuating seemed like an idea on the smarter side of things. It didn’t help that the hurricane was just doing its own thing and evading all scientific predictions of its path either.

This uncertainty and possible danger is what led to me and my family, as well as my cat and dog, to a small hotel room in Union City near Atlanta.

Evacuating is always a pain. We at least had the assurance of the Coast Guard reimbursing us for any costs (restaurants, hotels, etc.). Although having to stay in a small hotel room with my mom, three siblings, a dog and a cat weren’t how I planned to spend my evacuation vacation.  

Of course, we thought that nothing would happen, that it would harmlessly blow by us like the others we had experienced here (Irma, Matthew, now Florence), but the thought of a strong category four hurricane off the coast of the Carolinas left that argument to be doubted. Not to mention it was predicated to get stronger, and coming more south to South Carolina.

So of course, we settled on the good old better safe than sorry argument. What if it retained strength and blew right into South Carolina? What if Charleston and Mt. Pleasant were flooded, power was out, kids were complaining how hot it was if we lost power, maybe even structural damage. For us, it was a bit too much to risk, so we decided to leave.

While North Carolina took the brunt of the hurricane’s attack, South Carolina seemed to get nothing. All I received were tales of fallen trees in backyards or cars, and some power outages in the northeastern area of the state. Charleston didn’t even flood from what I’ve been told, so that should be enough of a statement for how “bad” our area was affected.

Not all of my family was on board with this, but like I said, better safe than sorry. We came back to an okay Mt. Pleasant, and house. I survived the evacuation and living in a small hotel room with my family for nearly a week. And with the added bonus of having clear streets and no damage when we got back.

Hey, I even went to the Atlanta Aquarium to, so that was pretty cool as well.  

The hurricane didn’t do much to us thankfully. I do wish to extend some thoughts to the people in North Carolina, I have seen footage of places there and all the flooding sweeping through the coastal areas. I’m thankful that South Carolina was spared. If this has taught me anything for me at least, one last time, it’s better safe than sorry.