Few sections of town had electricity. The first thing I noticed walking down Hillsborough Street was how many people were jammed into every restaurant. Parking lots were full. At the gas stations police were directing traffic around the lines of cars waiting for gas. A National Guard truck was ready at the gas stations in case of trouble. Considering how much chaos there was, people were rather orderly about the whole deal.

The reason for the crowd of people along the west end of Hillsborough Street... It was one of the few areas with electricity, and therefore, open eateries and working gas pumps.

The lucky people seem to be those who had the least damage. We still had a place to live at least, and vehicles in one piece too. And, get this-- we had electricity back on in 13 hours. It took up to two weeks to get the power back on just one block away.

Our biggest inconvenience was not being able to go to any of our regular hangouts along Hillsborough Street. They were too crowded.

One big difference about traveling around town was that several roads were blocked by fallen trees and power poles. It was like a puzzle trying to find a route to Harris Teeter, the nearby grocery store, and once we got there we found it closed (no power). I drove 6 miles for groceries. Traffic was worse than normal since so many routes were blocked.

Even when a road was open the next time I'd try going that way utility crews would be blocking the way. Being appreciative of their efforts I simply found an alternate route. If I found one, that is. It wasn't as easy as it sounds.

For example, one of my main routes through the west side of town, Wade Avenue, was blocked for over a mile. Part of the roadway was washed out, and other sections had traffic lights, power poles, and trees filling the roadway. Several intersections were impassable-- not one road blocked, but two.