The Beacon House Inn had quite the excitement this week with surprise visitor – Hurricane Irene! The photo above is of Noah & I the evening before Irene arrived.
Carolina Beach, NC residents started preparing for the hurricane a few days before it arrived. Hurricane shutters and plywood went up on windows around town. Most people expected to be without power for a few days, so they headed to stores to stock up on emergency supplies – bottled water, canned food and flashlights were the most popular items. In the end, there were no mandatory evacuations on Pleasure Island – only voluntary evacuations were called for.
We thank our lucky stars that we weren’t even a little farther north. We’ve heard of some places in the Outer Banks still being inaccessible. We wish our northern neighbors a very speedy recovery!
At the Beacon House Inn, we made the judgment call to stay and hunker down at the bed and breakfast. The Hurricane Irene was definitely thrilling for us, but all ended well! We did not lose power nor did we suffer any property damage.
After the heavy wind and rain, there was a bit of flooding from Canal Drive, but the water quickly receded. Clean-up mainly consisted of picking up neighbors’ roof tiles, pieces of palm trees and other random objects…and undoing all of our hurricane preparations.
After about a day and a half of heavy Beacon House Inn teamwork, the place was back to normal! However, we are still fielding inquiries like “Is Carolina Beach still open?”, “How are the roads in Carolina Beach?”, “What’s the weather like in Carolina Beach, after Hurricane Irene?”. You can rest assured, knowing the summer sunshine returned to Carolina Beach, NC Sunday afternoon. Just in time for the upcoming Labor Day weekend – if you’re still planning your holiday getaway, we do have a couple of rooms left – give us a call at 1.877.232.2666.