The Top 10 Things I Did During Hurricane Matthew Shut Down

Posted on October 11, 2016 by brent

After almost a week off, tomorrow I will return to work. I can’t describe how ready I am to get back on campus. Although I completely understand it, as I have declared before, I dislike missing work for unplanned weather events.

However, I did my best to try and enjoy the time off I had over the last several days. Even though I was working from home a majority of the time, I did make provisions to take advantage of the fact that I was not in the office. Tonight I want to briefly share the top ten things I did during the Hurricane Matthew Shut Down.

10. Watched every Governor Nikki Haley press conference – Along with the rest of the state, I became a fan of interpreter Jason Hurdich.

9. Got out of the house and went to the movies with Sidney to watch “The Girl on the Train.” – Although I can’t recommend the movie, the popcorn I had at the Coastal Grand Mall Cinemas was some of the freshest I have ever had the pleasure of eating.

We enjoyed getting out of the house last night and going to “The Girl on the Train.”

8. Ate Cinnamon Toast Crunch and doughnuts for breakfast one day – Sure beat my usual half of a peanut butter sandwich.

7. Watched day time TV, including “Let’s Make A Deal.” – Turns out I am not missing much when I am at work.

6. Intensely followed the U.S. Presidential race – What a wash, absolutely nothing happened at all.

5. Worked out at three different gyms – If only the exercise I put in could compensate for the roughly 10,000,000 calories I ate over the past week.

Over the last several days I worked out at Planet Fitness, Gold’s Gym, and Sky Fitness.

4. Managed to petrify all of my relatives who feared that Hurricane Matthew would sweep me away – Hey, the national news made the hurricane look like it was Armageddon.

I had many family members texting me to make sure that I would survive Hurricane Matthew.

3. Celebrated my birthday – No better way to ring in your “dirty thirty” than in a state of emergency with no electricity.

On the day that Hurricane Matthew hit Myrtle Beach, I celebrated my birthday.

2. Experienced my first major hurricane – Pretty big deal for a west coast boy.

1. Grew a Hurricane Matthew beard – Well, my best excuse for a beard anyway.

It was the best I could do.

————

So happy to return to work tomorrow. It is time to get back to normal. Hurricane Matthew, it has been real. Don’t Blink.

Surviving Hurricane Matthew

Posted on October 9, 2016 by brent

Good news and bad news.

First the good: Hurricane Matthew has passed us by.
Now the bad: His aftermath has not.

But let’s first start from the beginning. The most concerned I was during the whole Hurricane Matthew episode came late Friday night (technically Saturday morning). I awoke at around 1:30 a.m. to the sound of what seemed like an army of men pounding on the outside of our house. The high speed winds and bands of rain made sleeping tough. Laying in bed, my mind raced about whether or not everything was secure outside. Several times throughout the night I walked back and forth from the bedroom to the living room to look outside the window to make sure all was okay.

Morning finally came and our house was intact. However, we knew the worst part of the storm was still to come. Sidney and I went with my in-laws over to Steph and Jon’s house (sister-in-law/brother-in-law) for the day. It was there that we spent most of the day riding out the storm. We ate a ton of food, played games, watched college football, and celebrated my birthday. We also kept our eye on the storm as the rain came down with more intensity and the wind picked up in speed.

Over time though, the rain started to lessen. By 4 p.m., it had stopped. Although the wind was still whipping, we thought we might be out of the woods. But then the power went out!

With the news that a majority of the city was dealing with no power, Sidney and I decided to venture out into the storm to see the state of our own home. We drove extremely cautiously as we dodged large debris in the road and non-working traffic lights. When we arrived at the house we were ecstatic to see that we still had power. We were less ecstatic to see that the storm had taken out several sections of our fence. But, considering the nature of Hurricane Matthew, suffering a broken fence wasn’t too bad.

The rest of our family came and joined us at our home. As of this afternoon, much of Myrtle Beach, including my in-laws and Steph/Jon, don’t have power. We still have a full house and we are enjoying each other’s company as we wait for the city to do damage control.

Personally, I am busy with work as we communicate to the Coastal Carolina University community about campus operations. Campus will be closed tomorrow, meaning I will have another day out of the office. Horry County Schools also canceled classes tomorrow so Sidney will be at home with me. I am anxious for things to get back to normal.

One final note…today Sidney and I went to church. As mass started, the power was out. The service went along without electricity until we stood up for the Lord’s Prayer. Right before we started, the lights triumphantly turned on! Without missing a beat, Father Norbert Mendonca proclaimed “Praise God!!”

He is right. Although we are still dealing with a few issues from Hurricane Matthew, we are all lucky to be safe thanks to God. Sidney and I appreciate all of the calls and messages we have received over the past few days inquiring about our safety. We have survived Hurricane Matthew! Don’t Blink.

Hurricane Matthew Thursday Rundown

Posted on October 6, 2016 by brent

As I sit in our living room watching the news and working on my computer, I figured this would be a good time to write my Thursday Rundown. Here we go with today’s five topics…

Hurricane Update – Yesterday I gave a summary on how the lead up to Hurricane Matthew is impacting us. I also mentioned the toll it might take when it actually reaches us. Here is the thing: Weather forecasters are having a tough time charting the exact track of Hurricane Matthew. It keeps moving around, causing frustration not just for weather people but for citizens trying to make plans. However, no matter what course the hurricane takes, our area in Myrtle Beach is going to feel the presence of it in someway. Hurricane Matthew is still not expected to directly hit our area but strong on-shore winds do figure to give us some problems. We are also expected to receive MORE than 10 inches of rain. Because our soil here in Myrtle Beach is already saturated, this could give us some real issues.

I took this photo of a TJ Maxx this morning as I was coming back from the gym. The store boarded up its windows in preparation for the storm.

Alternative Places to Exercise – Because the Coastal Carolina campus is closed, so is the gym. This has forced me to go elsewhere for my workouts. Yesterday I went to ultra fancy Planet Fitness. This morning I got my pump in at traditional Gold’s Gym. Talk about the tale of two gyms! Planet Fitness was modern and large. Gold’s Gym was old school and small. Although I prefer working out at my home gym, venturing out these past two days hasn’t been too bad; in fact, I have kind of enjoyed it.

This is me taking a selfie inside the old school facilities of Gold’s Gym this morning.

A Good Business – I want to give a shout out to the person who helped us with the chalk art portion of our baby announcement. Brooke Holden provided us with the board and wrote the actual text on it. She was very helpful, affordable, and quick. Brooke specializes in weddings. If you have any calligraphy or chalk art needs, I highly recommend you take a look at her website.

This is the sign that Brooke Holden made for us.

Happy Birthday, Steph! – Last night we celebrated my sister-in-law’s birthday. Stephanie turned 34 and we celebrated with a little get together at her house. We enjoyed pizza and then ate cake and ice cream. We finished the night by watching her open presents and by playing with the kids. One final happy birthday wish to my great sister-in-law!

A scene from Steph’s birthday celebration last night.

Our Newest Show – Sidney and I have a brand new network show we are watching! “This Is Us” is a program on NBC that chronicles the adventures of triplets. Well, I am using the term “triplets” lightly since one of them is not biological to the two others. Anyway, Sidney got me to watch the premiere and the second show was equally as entertaining. Making things even more interesting is that my family out west is also watching the show so it gives us something to talk about with them. If you are looking for something to watch on Tuesday nights, I recommend it!

—————

If you live in South Carolina, please be safe this weekend. Thanks to everyone who has been thinking about Sidney and I. Like I said yesterday, I think we are going to be just fine. Don’t Blink.

Here Comes the Big One…Hurricane Matthew

Posted on October 5, 2016 by brent

Since living in South Carolina, I have written a few times about hurricanes. There was Hurricane Arthur, Hurricane Joaquin, and Hurricane Hermine. Each storm impacted us here in Myrtle Beach in some way. However, those three hurricanes supposedly won’t hold a candle to what we have coming.

Hurricane Matthew is set to rip through Myrtle Beach and the Horry County area on Saturday.

How serious is the threat? Yesterday we closed campus and canceled classes at Coastal Carolina…for the rest of the week! Today we evacuated our residential students. All schools are shut down in the area too, meaning Sidney is joining me at home as we wait out the storm. The governor is holding press conferences twice a day. Large scale evacuations in parts of the state started at 3 p.m. this afternoon.

Portions of Myrtle Beach will start evacuating tomorrow. Where Sidney and I live, we are in an evacuation zone. However, we are in Evacuation Zone C. Right now, just Evacuation Zone A must evacuate. It looks pretty good that we will be able to stay in our home as the hurricane arrives.

People are vigilantly preparing for Hurricane Matthew. Good luck finding bottled water in Walmart. Also, there is another resource that is getting sucked up. In her press conference yesterday, the governor advised everyone to fill up their gas tanks. Trying to heed her advice, I planned to make a stop at our local gas station. As I neared the area, I called Sidney to let her know I was going to make a quick stop. When I told her I was stopping to fuel up, she simply said “good luck.” The timing was like that of a movie because once she said that I looked to my right at the gas station and saw the chaos. A station with 12 pumps had what looked like 36 cars crammed around them.

In another eerie scene today, Sidney and I drove through our neighborhood and watched as neighbors boarded up their windows. People are not messing around.

With all this said, please don’t worry about us too much (seriously). I know in my gut that we will be fine. As of the latest update today, it looks like the hurricane’s impact won’t be as severe as once projected. Currently, we are bracing for the storm by just relaxing and having fun. Although I have to work from home, I am finding time to enjoy myself. This morning I hit up a new gym for a workout (since our gym at CCU is closed). I then went over to my in-laws and hung out with Sidney and our niece and nephew. We even went hunting for the ice cream man, it was great fun. So please know that we are doing just fine.

We had a great time hunting down the ice cream man today (top photo is courtesy of my mother-in-law, Brenda).

Thanks for all the texts and calls we have received. Come Saturday (the day the storm is supposed to hit us in Myrtle Beach), I hope to take some footage of Hurricane Matthew that I can share with you. Don’t Blink.