On Friday, September 26th we experienced the nightmare that was Hurricane Helene. We were aware that a major hurricane was headed to the U.S., but all of the forecasts with respect to the storm’s path appeared to indicate it was far enough west that it would only be a minor nuisance. Rainfall started late Wednesday and carried into Thursday. I went out and picked up some grocery items. My car was at 1/2 a tank, but It didn’t occur to me to fill up. Around 9 PM, our bedtime, our phones started blaring tornado warnings! We checked to local news and saw that funnel activity was being spotted in advance of Helene’s arrival. At this time she was just coming ashore as a category 4 storm in Florida’s panhandle. Again, we expected the storm to be a minor inconvenience. We woke up around 1:30 AM to the sound of rain and wind lashing the house. We turned on the TV news for updates. We learned that although he storm was far to the west of us, the wind field was quite large and we were warned to expect wind gusts exceeding 70 MPH. While this was alarming, there wasn’t much we could do other than hunker down. An hour later, we lost power. Our expectation was that we were looking at a temporary situation. We managed to go back to sleep, but the sound of things hitting our roof woke us up and we moved to the guest side of the house. The wind sounded like a freight train and in retrospect I’m certain that we may have experienced funnel cloud action. Around 4:00 we heard a large crash that shook the house and we wondered if our worst fears had come true – a downed tree on the house. We got up to investigate and didn’t see any visible damage. However, despite it being pitch black, a look out at the back yard revealed a downed tree. We managed to drop back off despite being completely terrified! The news app on the phone advised that we could expect clearing around sunrise. Waking up around 7 was surreal and there was a profound sense of relieve that we had survived. We opened the front door and saw what could only be described as a war zone. Tree debris was scattered all over our property and there were 2 massive pine trees laying on the ground between our house and our neighbor’s. If either of these trees had landed on either house it would have been devastating. A large branch was on the house and one on my husband Ken’s car. His car sustained damage while mine was untouched. Our next door neighbor stopped by to check on us and graciously offered a shower. Later on he also offer and extension cord connection as he had a generator. We left out for breakfast to find no working traffic signals and most businesses without power. Our favorite Cracker Barrel was open with a 70 minute wait and limited menu. We were grateful for a hot meal. We returned home and after awhile realized it would be too uncomfortable to stay and made the decision to seek out a hotel. Of course, there was no availability anywhere in the Savannah metro area and no gas to be found due to the stations being without power. We were 50 miles south of Savannah (outside of Brunswick, Ga) before we lucked up on a gas station that had power. There was line, but it wasn’t too bad and everyone was behaving civilly. We thought we had a hotel booked on Jekyll Island only to arrive to find they had no power! The front desk clerk was very helpful and directed us to Kingsland, Ga about 20 minutes away to get something to eat. We were able to get food at McDonald’s and there was power, but all of the hotels were booked. Another helpful front desk clerk directed us to Amelia Island, FL which was about 20 minutes away. We found the hotel to be clean and comfortable and it was also walking distance to the beach! Saturday was rainy, but we were able to get out and enjoy lunch at a local pizza parlor and in the evening enjoyed fresh seafood at a beachfront restaurant – Sliders. https://www.slidersseaside.com/ They had live music and the beachfront location was great! We made reservations back home expecting to be without power for at least another couple of days. We got back home on Sunday, September 29th, and was glad to see home even though we still didn’t have any electricity. We gathered up a fresh change of clothing and headed to Pooler, GA where our reservation was (near the Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport). We had dinner at our new favorite Mexican spot (Tacos and Tequila) and settled in for what we hoped would be a restful night at the hotel. Around 8 PM we received a text alert from Georgia Power that our electricity had been restored! We immediately got ourselves together and headed home! It was nice to spend the night in our own home and I still haven’t had the opportunity to process what we’ve been through. I am however, extremely grateful as scenes on the news of the devastation others have experienced make me realize we just had a minor inconvenience and I am counting my blessings.