I'm sure Hurricane Matthew has probably disappeared from your news now, but just to say one more word about him before he's forgotten: He smacked us hard here in eastern North Carolina.

I live 120 miles inland from the closest beach, and we got 15 inches of rain and tropical-force winds out of that sonuvagun before he was done. There's widespread flooding that in some places is even worse than in the landmark Hurricane Floyd back in 1999. Eleven people are dead so far, mostly in cars that were swept away in flash flooding.

Power went out around here late Saturday afternoon and just came back on this morning, and it sure was frustrating not to be able to go online and see what was going on. Wife and I were lucky and didn't have any flooding into the house, though it was shin-deep and rising out in the street for awhile. Coast Guard and other agencies have been plucking folks off roofs all over, and 31 counties are federal disaster areas as of today.

We're dealing with a flooded office at work, three feet of creek water in the basement, servers submerged, and torn up parking lot to boot. It'll be awhile before we back up and running, but some folks got it even worse.

But the sun's been shining brightly for two days, temps are nice and cool, and better days are ahead. It's good to be back.

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Ukraine -- now more than ever

Well, I'm in New Hanover County and I was surprised we didn't get hit worse. You inland folks seem to be getting hit hard and even more to come if the stories are right. I hope you make it without too much damage! It was a lot of water and heavy winds for us, but no Fran.

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Support Israel!

Was stationed at Ft. Bragg in the distant past,didn't realize a hurricane would reach that far! Hope you all came out ok.

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Hue 68 noli me tangere

I was just reading the remnants are now wreaking havoc all the way up in Newfoundland. The whole disaster is simply amazing considering the vast majority of hurricanes that hit the US start out as storms in Western Africa. Thank goodness more people were not killed.

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Possum—The other white meat!

You tasted a shot of the Day After I'm afraid.

At least you were able to come back.

Welcome to the greener side of the fence. But don't forget you're lessons, they'll come in handy soon enough I assure you.