HURRICANE EARL: Residents, concerned or not, preparing for storm

Joyce Wyatt has lived in New Bern all of her life, and she said she’s experienced the impacts of a number of hurricanes in the area in those 75 years.

As she loaded groceries into the back of her vehicle at Food Lion on Dr. M.L. King Jr. Boulevard today, hours before area residents are expected to see impacts from Hurricane Earl’s brush by the N.C. coast, Wyatt recalled that in 1955 when her daughter was born, rising waters from Hurricane Ione flooded her parents’ home.

But Wyatt is not particularly concerned about wind or flooding impacts with Hurricane Earl.

“I think this one’s just coming to the Outer Banks,” Wyatt said. “I’m not real concerned about it, but I always like to have bread and milk in the house.”

New Bern resident Latahsha Simmons also made a trip to Food Lion today with the goal of picking up bread and sandwich supplies. Like Wyatt, Simmons said she wasn’t especially concerned about Earl.

“It never hits here,” she said. “But it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

Simmons had just come from picking up her son, John, 8, from Albert H. Bangert Elementary in Trent Woods. The school, along with other Craven County Schools, released early at 1 p.m. today. Cars lined up around the school and parents sat outside together to wait for the students’ release.

Sonya Thurman, a Trent Woods resident with a child in second grade at Bangert and another in school at The Epiphany School, said she had gone to the grocery store on Wednesday, but only because that was her regularly scheduled shopping day. She noticed people buying bread, chips and eggs.

“The eggs, I’m guessing you plan on fixing breakfast because you’re home?” she said.

Thurman said she prepared for the storm by removing the furniture from her deck, moving her outdoor plants inside, and taking the basketball hoop down.

 “I’m mainly concerned because my roof is 20 years old,” she said. “That’s my main concern.”

As parent Lauren Buhrmaster waited for Bangert to release students, she said her greatest concern is that the power will go out in her Trent Woods home.

Buhrmaster has one child in kindergarten as well as a 1-year-old, and she said she is concerned about cooking without power and being inside without air conditioning. She said she had stocked up on soup, bread, and canned vegetables, and also put together a disaster preparedness kit.

“I am a little concerned, but I think that’s only because this is my first (hurricane experience in North Carolina),” she said, adding that her family moved to North Carolina three years ago, and to New Bern three months ago. “I don’t know what to expect.”

Laura Oleniacz can be reached at 252-635-5675 or at loleniacz@freedomenc.com.