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W

e were spared. Hurricane Earl didn’t bring much to Oriental. None of the waist-high and forehead-high flooding of 2005’s Ophelia or 2003’s Isabel. What we got was milder than some of the storms we had this spring and summer.

The Bean porch around 7a on Friday. Water covered only a small swatch of Hodges Street. Even that was gone an hour or so later.

Many in town had been bracing for much worse and with good reason. As late as Thursday morning, Earl had been a Category Four storm. (He was bumped down to a Three during the day and further downgraded to a Category Two at 8p Thursday.) They are to be taken seriously. And among some of us, there was a sense that since it had been five years since a hurricane brought floods to low-lying parts of the village, we might well be due for another.

Morning glories looked none the worse for wear along the rip-rap near the Lou-Mac Park pier. Around 8 Friday, strips of blue sky were showing thru the fast moving clouds. By midday, the sky would give over entirely to the blue.

For a few days, especially Wednesday and Thursday, Oriental prepped for Earl. Trawlers tied up in the harbor, a rare mid-week sight. Residents took stock of their yards and anything that might float away. Battening down the hatches sounds so much more romantic than the reality of schlepping possessions to higher ground. In making those trips up and down stairs, the village collectively climbed the equivalent of a small mountain. It’s part of life at or close to sea level.

Hurricane Earl barely stayed long enough to have a cup of coffee. Earl Evens on the other hand stopped by the Bean Friday morning with his wife Sandy. While Sandy came to the coffee house wearing Pamlico Nikes, the white boots weren’t needed as Hurricane Earl brought little in the way of rain or storm surge to Oriental.)

Then, as became clear at daylight Friday, Earl didn’t test our efforts. Earl barely raised the creek and harbor and Duck Pond levels beyond what we get from a sharp North wind. Oriental has seen Nor’easters that pumped more water on to her streets.

Oriental’s harbor Friday morning as the dark skies began to move away.

But were the preparations for naught? Some were taking a longer view. Namely that it was better to take those steps and not have to do the cleanup than vice versa. (And one resident observed that now all of the boats in their slips are tied up as they are supposed to be.)

Fish or cut bait? Scene at the Lou Mac pier Friday morning after Earl came and went.

Flooding brings dramatic images. Kayaking through watery streets. Water sloshing inside living rooms. And afterward, waterlogged possessions tossed to the curbside, near the piles of soggy pink insulation. None of those photos were to be had in Oriental with the lethargic Hurricane Earl. In that we are not disappointed, but rather, glad that Oriental was spared the mess and ache that comes with days and weeks and months of recovering from flooding.

(Some more of the scenes we did find in Earl’s wake Friday morning, on the next page.).

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Posted Friday September 3, 2010 by Melinda Penkava

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