The curse of the birthday hurricanes

It’s a standing joke in my family that my birthday & my mom’s will be interrupted by a hurricane. For many years, a hurricane has either hit or threatened during those few days between our birthdays.

In 1984, Hurricane Hugo struck South Carolina. We lived on Hilton Head Island at the time (a barrier island), and Hugo was headed right for us. My parents stayed up all night watching the weather advisories, and in the early morning hours decided to evacuate. I remember being woken up while it was still dark and rushing to get dressed as my mom packed the essentials. Most of the day was spent driving to Atlanta to stay with some friends. After we left, the storm changed course at the last minute, hitting Charleston instead of Hilton Head.

Shortly after that, we moved back to New England for a few years. You would think that we wouldn't experience hurricanes there, but in 1991 Hurricane Bob brushed up the coast of the Eastern United States and hit New England. We didn't evacuate, as it had weakened significantly by the time it reached us in Maine, but I remember a lot of buzz about the coming storm. Our neighbors bought a generator to use in case the power went out, and I was amazed at the idea that it could create electricity even with the power out. My uncle lived further south, and didn't want to stay in his house for the storm, so he made the drive up to our house. He must have waited a little too long, because he didn't arrive until the storm was in full force. I have a vivid memory of waiting anxiously for him to arrive, then watching him run through the rain and being sent to bed where I huddled in the dark (we never lost power, but it was "past my bedtime") trying to go to sleep. Even then I was fascinated by the weather, and I took it upon myself to try to stay awake to watch out for tornadoes. It didn't work, but of course there weren't any.

The next year, we followed my dad’s job as it was transferred to Florida. The first several hurricane seasons were uneventful, but in the late 1990’s things started to heat up again.

1998 brought Georges, and school was cancelled for the week since it looked like he was taking direct aim at us. (The storm ended up changing course and our week off was full of beautiful weather).

1999 brought Floyd, and again school was cancelled for a few days. A friend had just moved to Florida from Connecticut, his family was so concerned about the storm they evacuated back to Connecticut. The storm ended up turning before it hit Florida and skirted the Eastern coastline before hitting - you guessed it - Connecticut.

In 2001, Tropical Storm Gabrielle made landfall just 20 miles south of our house. It was just three days after 9/11 and everybody was still in such shock that hardly anyone did anything to prepare. From what I remember, I was the one to encourage my mom to grocery shop for supplies and my dad to board the windows. My sister was in town that weekend for me and my mom's joint birthday celebration, we met at our favorite restaurant - usually crowded, the coming storm had kept people away and we were the only ones in the entire dining room. Once the storm passed the next day, we all pitched in to help clean up the downed tree limbs and other debris littering the street; we were fortunate that the damage wasn't worse.

The 2004 hurricane season was wild. Charley hit in August, followed by Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne. Each storm had only a few weeks in between. I was in college at the time, and the constant barrage of storms kept classes cancelled for a 2 week stretch. My mother, sister and I were actually on a cruise that August, and were vaguely aware of some "tropical activity", but we were in for a rude awakening when we returned to port. Customs agents asked if we really wanted to come back and every drugstore was advertising hurricane supplies.By the time we drove home and checked the weather channel, the storm was estimated to make a direct hit the very next day. I hightailed it back to Orlando (sorry, Mom!) and hopped on a plane for a previously scheduled vacation to visit my father in New York City. I later found out that my flight was the last one out before the airport was shut down. As we took off and gained altitude, I could see the dark feeder bands in the distance moving closer and closer. It was one of the most eerie, yet cool, things I've ever seen.

I have many other hurricane stories that I can share, but so does anyone that lives in Hurricane Country. Mine just seem to have the added odd twist of all happening right around my birthday. It's a silly little family joke, but it's definitely a story I'll be able to pass down to my children and grandchildren.