Many have just gone through a most unusual experience – the hurricane Florence. Extraordinary. Some will be dealing with the effects of this for a long time to come. This storm began far out in the Atlantic and from the beginning made a beeline for the Wilmington NC area. Unlike other storms that historically begin where it started, it did not gradually and eventually turn northward, curving to hit or graze the coast as it moved northward.
No, it persisted and came straight to this Wilmington area. And once it made landfall, it turned to the south of all things, not north. It went south down into South Carolina, then turned westward where it proceeded deep into that state before turning northward finally and going near Charlotte NC and on further north, all the while weakening. It was no longer a hurricane at that point.
Hurricanes just don’t normally behave like that. This storm acted as if it had a specific target in mind.
This I know: Once it was clearly identified as a category 4, even borderline 5, storm that was heading directly toward shore, Wilmington and smaller nearby communities made preparation and two days before the storm’s arrival the nearby beach communities declared a mandatory evacuation. Veteran residents of the South Atlantic coast do not readily evacuate for storms. They have experienced them before. They know how to prepare, just like the residents of New England and the severe coastal storms they experience at times.
My wife and I for example do not generally evacuate for a category one storm, one with persistent winds in the 74 to 95 mile per hour range. We might for a category 2 (96-110 mph). We made a decision long ago to evacuate for any category 3 (111 – 129 mph) or higher storm. Preparing a house to endure a direct hit, boarding up or putting up hurricane shutters, getting everything inside, and such is a lot of work and no fun. And living inside that house during a severe hurricane is no fun either. It is frightening and terrifying. People die in hurricanes. Houses are destroyed in hurricanes. This is no game. I lived through a category 3 hurricane many years ago in Texas. I have no interest in experiencing that again.
Category 4 (130-156 mph) or higher is just another level. There historically has only been one such level storm to hit North Carolina in the past, the famous Hazel that destroyed 15,000 houses and damaged 39,000 others back in a time in the 1950’s when the coast was much less populated.
The destruction level ramps up greatly with each number. I remember when we bought our home years ago in the small beach community where we live. The builder was giving me a description of how to prepare for a hurricane and what to expect for each category level. When he got to 4 and 5, he just stopped describing. I got his point quickly.
So when hurricane Florence was close to land and still a category 4, the local authorities put into place all the emergency plans and issued the evacuation order. People began to evacuate, to go inland to family and friends, to hotels.
Several days before we and many of those involved or following our ministry had begun to pray steadily against the storm, to speak against the storm as Jesus has said we can do. Remember, he said we can do the same things he did, and one of the things he did was to change the weather. He also described how we are to speak in authority to the mountains (problems) in life, to order them out. So we did that. Many others did too, others who understand and know the authority they have in Christ.
As we watched the progress of the storm to shore from the safety of my sister’s home far inland, we suddenly and clearly saw God at work. In about a full day or so just before landfall, the storm dropped in intensity from a category 4 to a category 3, then to a category 2. We all persisted in Jesus’ name in ordering the storm to diminish in power along with other things. Then just before it hit, it dropped all the way to 90 miles per hour winds, a category 1! As it hit the winds were at that general level, from about 90 to 100 miles per hour! Praise God!
We would have stayed home for that storm if we had known it would have been at that level. So would many of the others who left under the mandatory evacuation. In fact, there would have been no mandatory evacuation order.
Now as the storm with its greatly reduced wind strength continued on its course once ashore, we have all seen what turned out to be the real horror of this storm, the excessive rain that caused the rivers to rise and eventually significant floods that have greatly impacted communities living along rivers or in low lying areas in large regions of the country. This flooding continues to be a major calamity. People have died. Property in those flood areas has been greatly destroyed, as has property affected by the wind when it first came ashore.
But focus on this: If Florence had come ashore as a category 4 hurricane, we would not be talking today about cleaning up Wilmington and the surrounding beach communities. We would be talking about major devastation. I’m not sure how many houses would be left in those communities or just what Wilmington and the North Carolina and South Carolina coast would look like at all.
The deadly flooding is terrible indeed, and we all must continue to pray against this, to order the water to subside in Jesus’ name, and to pray for those impacted by the flooding.
And we should and must also strongly thank God for the great diminishing in power of this storm. That was clearly God’s hand in action.
If there is a next time like this, we should all again pray against the storm, ordering it away, ordering it to diminish in power and dissipate, all in Jesus’ name. And we obviously should add to that speaking against excessive rain and against flooding in Jesus’ name.
As for our community, our home had no damage from the storm. Apparently, our neighbors also had no significant damage, as did most of the town in which we live. Praise God! Thanks to God! And in general, God saved much of the coastal area of Wilmington NC and surrounding communities, even as all work there to restore the area back to normal and even as we all check to see what highways are open and which are flooded. There could have been almost no such coastal area. That did not happen.
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Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!
(SEPTEMBER 2018)
Copyright © 2018 by John Newlin
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