So you are right in the mix of it?
How are you holding up?
We're fine. We've got a gas water heater and generators. The only damage to the house was some water in the basement/garage. I think it got blown in via the garage door, but I'll be able to take a closer look at everything once the power is restored. It was a challenge finding gas Friday and Saturday, but it's pretty readily available, now. I went to walmart yesterday afternoon to buy more 1lb cylinders for the camp stove I'm using to cook some stuff. We've also got a gas grill, smoker, and griddle. I also filled up my truck and a spare 5 gallon container that we'd run dry via the generator. The store and the pumps were being powered by large industrial generators. Plenty of grocery stores are open, and hell, costco was open the day after the storm rolled through.
My little 2000w inverter generator is powering the refrigerator in the kitchen and charging up phones, laptops, tablets, and my Milwaukee 18v batteries. My older, larger generator is at the neighbor's house. They didn't have one and her husband is retired RAF and is gone all the time for contracting work, so I gave it to them to use. He was here Saturday and Sunday, but left Monday to go back to his current gig.
I was at the beach Monday through Thursday, last week. We got back Thursday evening, and actually drove through some of the outer bands on the storm on the way back. Most of it wasn't bad at all. It was nothing like what came through Friday morning. I've been through various natural disasters with lengthy power outages, so I'm used to shit like this. Greenville got hit pretty hard, there are trees and power poles still down all over the place, but it's slowly being cleaned up. There was also quite a bit of flooding in many areas.
At one point, 97% of Greenville County was without power. Duke Energy really didn't start working on stuff until late Sunday. All of the other little local co-ops had boots on the ground Friday afternoon and I think most of their customers had their power restored days ago. I don't know if it's true or not, but rumors are swirling that Duke waited until the area was officially declared a federal disaster area before they really got to work, due to extra money being available from the government. Crews are definitely here from all over the country, now.
I've got friends all over Western NC and East TN, and many of them fared far worse. I haven't heard of them dying, but many are still unaccounted for. Cell service is still out and/or spotty in many areas.