Tuesday October 4th our Governor Nikki Haley held a press conference announcing plans to help our state through the challenges we were about to face from the high winds and rain of hurricane Matthew as it neared the South Carolina coastline. With this information in mind we began to consider what our plan would be, there were quite a few things to think about, a field where we just planted our fall crops, and poultry to care for. We never had to leave our house and property behind due to a storm before but with the governor’s announcement we began to prepare our homestead for our evacuation. Wednesday a cage was built to transport our hens with us when we evacuated. Thursday we moved all new potted plants and other possible projectiles onto the front porch.
Knowing the storm could have a damaging effect on Orangeburg we thought it best to be as prepared as possible and loaded our generator on the truck and our Kubota tractor on its trailer. Gas stations might close so we took two, five-gallon containers of gas and bottles of oil for the generator along with one, five-gallon container of diesel fuel for the tractor. Our largest cooler was packed with foods from the freezer and refrigerator that would surely spoil if power were lost on St. Helena, a few items from the pantry were taken as well. The queen size air mattress and pump plus our flashlights were packed along with tarps and extra bungee cords; it almost seemed as if we were going camping.
Tony and Peter boarded the windows along the front porch, Sarah helped us corral the chickens into the crate which was then rolled onto a trailer to be pulled by the van. Feeders and waterers for the chickens along with some of their food were packed for the trip. The kittens were crated and enough food and litter along with training pad packed as well. We couldn’t take all of our animals. Sir Duke our Royal Palm turkey, our guinea, eleven ducks and about seven roosters were left behind to fend for themselves during our absence. We fed them all, pit out a large amount of food and water and hoped for the best. With as many jobs as possible done we loaded our personal belongings in the vehicles, van, truck and SUV and hit the road. We left the island late Thursday afternoon with very little traffic. The majority of the residents who intended to evacuate had already done so. There were quite a number of law enforcement officers out patrolling and watching as people left. We reached Orangeburg safely at dusk. After unpacking and unloading most of our belongings, we went out to get something to eat from Cookout. Burgers, and fries were enjoyed by all that evening.