Weather Watchers

I grew up on the south coast of NC, the part that sticks out. I was six. We were just NE of where the eye came in and received some of the worst of Hazel. Fierce winds, torrential rains, and a huge storm surge wiped out almost everything directly on the coast from Myrtle Beach northward for 100 miles. An island might have five houses left standing out of five hundred.

We were several miles inland and were spared the storm surge, but had other damage including the destruction of crops. Overall, still fairly lucky.

The damage was so severe along the coast and inland that Before/After Hazel became a primary way of measuring time in NC. The book and movie "Where the Crawdads Sing" is laughably wrong in so many ways, but none so egregious as its total omission of Hazel and other hurricanes. !!!