the drive back home from Charlotte

back home around 2pm today... quite a drive back from Charlotte along with our friends in tandem with both cars.... Rt 74 a-okay until we got to I-95 as we crossed over it... we looked down & I-95 was closed from that location north about 50 miles due to flooding in Lumberton & Fayetteville in NC.. we continued on our routed drive on Rt 74 .. as we got to about 3 miles from crossing the Lumber River it was awash across the 4 lanes of the roadway... emergency personnel were guiding us down to 1 lane each way thru the water .. you wouldn't believe how fast the river water was running right up onto the pavement and surrounding areas.. .. continuing along Rt 74 we got to within 2 mile of our exit at Whiteville... another 2 mile backup as all lanes were routed off the exit. Rt 74 was closed up ahead but we were getting off here anyway... NO electricity in Whiteville and all of Columbus County... so no gas.. no food nada..every intersection was manned.. since we had plenty of gas we drove on to a quiet rest of the drive home... got home in 4.5 hours about an hour longer than usual so not so bad.. lots of trees down and branches in our development.. we luckily were unscathed-- NO trees hit the house .. plenty of large branches in the driveway and backyard... started the cleanup for about 2+ hours this afternoon.. plenty more to do...taking it e-z doing it.. the town will make a pickup next week sometime of all the debris

Rt 74 at Lumber River

Tom & Denise's car in front of us

Lumber River flooding on Rt 74

what a greeting at home

could be a lot worse