US East Coast 2018: The Wind Blew Us - Hurricane Florence & Its Impact

Travelling is an art as much as it is a science. You may be scientific about planning the places to go, sites to visit, accommodations to stay etc. But sometimes unforeseen circumstances take place, and it becomes an art to manage the uncertainty.

When we planned our trip to the East Coast of the US, we did not expect that the specific region would be hit by a hurricane. Naturally, when we first heard about Florence we were very alarmed.

The headlines were grim:

"Hurricane Florence Targets Carolinas, Appalachians With Potentially Catastrophic Flooding, Destructive Winds; Hurricane Warning Issued"

"Hurricane Florence grows larger as it bears down on Carolinas with ‘life-threatening’ fury"

What was unnerving was that Hurricane Florence was predicted to travel almost exactly along the route of our travels!

The path of Hurricane Florence. The coastal towns of Wilmington and Myrtle Beach were the hardest hit.
Myrtle Beach is located just 8.5 miles (13.6km) north of our intended accommodation, Surfside Beach.

On Day 14 of our travels, we made the following post:

"Hurricane Florence is set to hit the coastal regions of South Carolina and North Carolina, the exact places we were planning to visit next week. This is going to be one of the most devastating hurricanes in recent times, and we do not intend to be driving into the storm.

We therefore made a difficult decision to change our plans completely, which means cancelling our accommodation and our planned sights of interest. We will be driving inland to avoid the path of the hurricane.

As of today, our plans have been completely cast asunder, and we will have to make fresh plans anew.

A valuable lesson learnt is that man may make the best of plans, but ultimately God alone decides where we go."

Original road trip route. From Orlando, Florida, we intended to stay the night in Savannah, Georgia, before
heading off to Surfside Beach for a week.

We spent the next two days evaluating our options, and on Day 16, we made the following post:

"The hurricane hits.

These few days have been extremely uncertain for us as we cancel our next week's accommodation and consider the options as to what lies ahead after we leave Florida this Saturday.

Possible options:
1) Reroute through Georgia inland.
2) Fly way up north and make our way down south.
3) Stay down south in Florida.
4) Cut short our road trip and go home.

So it's between Options 1 & 2, with Option 2 adding significantly to our travel costs.
Naturally Option 4 is not going to be a major consideration given all that we took to get here and also that our lives are not in severe danger by staying.

As for Option 3, I love Florida, but my adventuring spirit is restless to move on.

But even if we decide to go with either of these two options, it's still a question of where to go.

Then again this is a very unusual hurricane and we still have no idea about the path it will take.

So we have decided to wait and see what happens and make our decision as the storm unfolds.

Uncertainty is hard."
In the end we chose Option 1, which took us into inland Georgia, completely avoiding the state of South Carolina.

As a result of Hurricane Florence we got to stay a week in Georgia instead, with one night in historic Thomasville and
the rest of the week in gorgeous Helen.

It was truly a harrowing experience for us to have to make so many last minute changes; - including having to forego our entire accommodation booking in South Carolina, as well as having to cancel many of our planned site visits. However, as we have learnt during our numerous travel experiences, there is never a holiday that goes exactly according to plan.

And although we didn't know it at that time, we had in store for us a most fabulous time in Georgia!

The Previous Page: Beauty in Nature - The Florida State Parks. Read here.

Journey Onward: Of Chilli Dogs & a Game of Darts. Read here.

From the Beginning - Start reading the record pages of our US East Coast Travel Adventure here.

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