Please be safe!

Yes, flooding is the major issue, and it has taken out several bridges. One meteorologist estimated that by the time it's done, Flo will have dropped 18 trillion gallons of rain!

Now I'm starting to get concerned about my plants, sitting there unwatered until we can return. Some were in S/H culture, so even if the reservoirs dry out, the pellets will continue releasing water for a while longer, and pretty much everything else was in sphagnum. My biggest concerns are the tolumnias, a pleurothallis, and a Phal. parishii I just got from Andy's, which are mounted.

Such is the price of safety, I guess.

I painfull as it is, as you well know, they can be replaced.

Agreed. Losing a few to dehydration will beat the hell out of losing 1000 to a freeze, which I have dealt with already.

One weather man estimated that Flo will dump a total of 18,000,000,000,000 gallons of rainwater by the time it's spent, half of it over NC. That's basically 10" of rain over every square inch of the entire state. We got about 30".

We made it home yesterday after all, courtesy of phone calls to the police to find out the "scoop" on local closures, and a marvelous navigation app called WAZE that took us on a circuitous route around all of the closures.

Unfortunately, a very large maple tree snapped off and fell on our roof and a pergola on the deck. We'll see once the limbs are removed later today, but I don't think the roof was damaged much, if at all, but we will be talking to our insurance adjuster!

Once I get this mess cleaned up, plants will go outside again, and resume watering! A couple of tolumnias brightened the day a bit, having bloomed while we were away.

Glad you could make it home. Considering the extent of the damage caused by Flo, you are relatively lucky that your house made it through with (hopefully) just minor damage to the roof. Good luck with the clean up!

Good news, Ray! Coming home to this sweet little tolumnias must have been a treat!

You're a fortunate man, Ray!:)
What about your neighbouring? Were they affected?

I'm glad to hear you're finally home, Ray! It sounds like you've got quite a mess to clean up, but I guess you have to take comfort in knowing it's not nearly as bad as it could have been. I hope things will get back to normal before too long.

Great to see you’re home Ray! It sounds as though you are fortunate to have had minimal damage compared to many I’ve seen. I hope you are able to restore normalcy soon. We have some retired friends with a home in Calabash, not far from you. They evacuated safely and we hope to hear from them soon.

Good luck with the repairs and clean up!