Not everyone has bad memories of Hurricane Floyd. For my family, it marks one of the happiest times in our lives. In the wee hours of September 16, 1999, my twins were born just as the eye of Hurricane Floyd passed to the east of Raleigh; 3:15AM and 3:17AM to be exact. I had been placed on bed rest at my 28th week of pregnancy. At the 35th week, I was allowed to resume normal activity. Although there wasn't much "normal" for a 60" body carrying 40" of babies. About this same time, two hurricanes, Cindy and Dennis, were brewing. It hit me that "oh no, what if I go into labor during a hurricane?" Even though Dennis looped around and hit the NE part of our state, luckily we were not affected. Another week passes and we were now facing two more storms, Gert and Floyd. It just so happened that I had an appointment in the morning of 9/15/99. My Dr announced that I had dilated 2cm, so he sent me to Wake Med for further evaluation. But after tests and walking and more tests and more walking, the Dr sent me home despite my protest. I said, "hello, you do know there is a hurricane heading this way, right?" He tried to assure me that my minor contractions were not strong enough and he felt no babies would arrive in the next 24 hours. :? Since Fran was still fresh in our minds, we knew that even if I wasn't actually in labor that we should still be prepared. What if Floyd was as bad as Fran? What if all paths were blocked to the hospital? How much tequila do we have? We left Wake Med around 1:00PM, and I started having painless contractions that were 7 minutes apart. We went to Wal-Mart and just walked around and watched people scurrying to grab water, batteries, etc. We got home around 4:00 and my contractions were now 5 minutes apart. We had decided that even if I was not admitted, that we would still spend the night at Wake Med. I called the nurse and she told me to get to WM as she knew how far out we live. I must say that I was a little worried as the wind and rain were pretty strong at that point. The WM L&D was a hotbed of activity as was the waiting area. There were a few other moms expecting twins who were camping out for the night. Most of the evening is blurry, but I remember water pouring down the corner of my room and watching Greg Fishel. I will add that it is a lot easier to push out two 6 lb babies than it was one 9lb baby......who was conceived during Fran. :mrgreen: I hope you enjoyed my positive memory of Floyd.
Cute story! Was thinking you were going to say you named them Cindy and Dennis! :jester: I was pregnant then too, and in Rex for 3 days with kidney infections, and all I did was watch the hurricane news on TV. Nothing else to do, and I learned a lot about the storms then too...I had only lived in NC 2 years at that time.
My house was a total loss! Wow! I cannot believe it has been ten years! It was a very rough time for me after the storm. I spent the night at my Dad's house fearing that if I was in a mobile home I would get picked up into the sky!! Well, this did not happen, but two very large poplar trees fell through my bedroom where I would have been laying asleep!! I received a call at work to come home immediatley. When I arrived I felt so sad and empty. My house was totally lost and most of my stuff was ruined by the rain that had fallend since the trees split my house apart!! I called my boyfriend (now my husband) and he came with a chainsaw from Benson. He arrived laughed and put his chainsaw back into his truck. He then marched over to turn my main power source off!! OOOPS! I did not realize how much danger I was in sitting watching tv (well, not me but several friends who had now gathered!) He was so upset with me. In the end everything turned out great. I waited for almost two months for my insurance company to pay up and then my boyfriend proposed to me that Christmas!! Needless to say our son's same is not FLOYD like we told each other it would be because that is what really brought us together and closer than we ever were!! LOL! I shake every single time a warning comes on TV now. They can be so damaging, but I was lucky to have my life. I was talked into staying at my dad's that night around 11pm. I would have been in my bed asleep when the trees came through. My mom came over to see the damage and she just cried!!
I had a Flyod Baby too--I was not due for another three weeks but the drop in pressure sent me into labor early!
If we had not been at the hospital, our new van that we had just purchased (because our car wouldn't hold three car seats)would have been squashed by a tree. By the time it was certain that I would be admitted, it was too dangerous for my mom to drive from Fayetteville and my dad from Wilson. My mom didn't have too much trouble but it took my dad until about 5:00PM to find a safe path out of Wilson.
