Good Riddance, September

 I'm not even sure where to start with trying to reecap the month of September.  This was meant to be my month to Prepare.  And for a while I was making pretty good progress.

I was getting my house in order to prepare for my knee surgery in October. Getting things cleaned and organized. Decorating for Autumn. Things weren't moving along quite as quickly as I hoped, but I was happy with the progress I was making.

Then we got to the last week of September...

On the afternoon of September 25th, it began raining.   Over the next twenty-four hours, the area of North Carolina where I live received record rainfall.  Some areas were flooding.  It was a bit of a mess. But that wasn't the big problem.
The big problem was that Hurricane Helene was about to make landfall in Florida and head our way.  It's path was just west of us, putting us on the east side if the storm where the heaviest rainfall occurs.  Rain we didn't need on top of what had just fallen.

It rained throughout the day of the 26th. And in the early morning hours of Friday, September 27th, Helene unleashed her fury on our mountains.  It was worse than we could have imagined.

In our immediate neighborhood, trees and power lines are down.  We have no power, no water, and no internet service. Part of our road has washed away, but is fortunately still passable. Cell phone service is extremely spotty and virtually nonexistent at my house. I'm posting this while sitting in a parking lot where I was able to find a signal.

As crazy as things are for us right now, we are considering ourselves fortunate.   Our home isn't flooded and doesn't have a tree through the roof. We have been in touch with family to determine that everyone is OK. We've been able to cook some on the grill and a propane burner. We have been able to get out and get some more bottled water and some groceries. 

So many others in the area are suffering much more than we are right now. Homes have washed away or been destroyed by landlides and falling trees. Lives have been lost.  I don't think is possible to overstate how much this area is hurting.