Grantham family loses home
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on October 13, 2016 10:00 AM
Submitted photo
Street signs near Renee and Carlton Hinson's home on Hood Drive in the Grantham community, as the waters from Hurricane Matthew continued to rise over the weekend
GRANTHAM -- Renee Hinson's home on Hood Drive had been through Hurricane Floyd back in 1999, so she wasn't too worried when rumblings about Hurricane Matthew started.
"All week we had been tracking the storm watch, tracking its progress," she said. "Having gone through that experience, we knew what the flooding was all about, but we just never in a million years thought that this would happen again as long as we were living.
"We kept track of the storm all week and when it looked like it could possibly touch the edge of our coast, we started thinking about it a little more seriously, knowing that the possibility is always there because you can't predict those things."
She already knew what to do.
"I started putting things up on top shelves, on top of the cabinets," she said. "I packed all of my jewelry and things like that in plastic containers and put them up high.
"I didn't put anything in the attic because when it flooded before it was only like 36 inches in the house. I just felt good that putting everything higher like that, we were going to be fine."
So all those important family photos, mementos and keepsakes were exactly where they needed to be in case the rains came down, she said.
Other things, like equipment for the entertainment business she runs with her husband, Carlton, RJH Productions, were put in a trailer and taken elsewhere, along with the couple's personal vehicles.
"My husband and I both work with a company called Storm Services where, when things like this happen, we get called out to go out and assess the damage so that we know where to send the line crews, the Progress Energy folks, what the priorities are first," she said.
They knew the drill. And then Carlton, retired after 45 years as a lineman with Progress Energy and now working with Mastec as a safety man, got a call Friday morning that he was needed to assist with relief efforts in Vanceboro.
It appeared that things were worsening, said Mrs. Hinson, who commenced to square things away at the house.
"When I had done everything that I felt like I could do, I went ahead and left and came to our daughter's home in Dunn," she said. "My son called me, it was probably 3 or 4 o'clock (Saturday afternoon). The water hadn't started coming up in the back, like it always does when it rains a lot.
"But I knew that this time just felt a little different. I just had that gut feeling that we would get flooded."
Around 8:30 that evening, her son called and said he was at her house and water had risen to the edge of the in-ground swimming pool.
"He said he was going to make one last trip and asked if there was anything I needed to get out of that house," Mrs. Hinson said. "He said, 'It's fast, the water's coming in a hurry, and we're going to have to get out.'
"I didn't think about getting my laptop (earlier) so I said, 'Grab my laptop, grab my thumb drives out of the drawer, just get out.' I said, 'It is what it is, there's nothing we can do. I want you to be safe.'"
Around 3:30 a.m. Sunday, she got a message she hoped she would never get.
"He texted me and my daughter and said that our home was gone," she said. " It was completely flooded."
Others in the neighborhood had challenges as well -- one rescued from his attic, others in poor health, one in a wheelchair, being brought to safety.
"It's just devastating," Mrs. Hinson said Sunday night. "I know that we serve a mighty God and I know that He's going to provide. He's already provided us with somewhere to go and stay until we can figure things out.
"I know there's going to be blessings that we can't see yet. But we do not plan to build back down on Hood Drive. We love it there. That's our home. But we're just not going to take that chance again for a third time. We're getting older. Next time we may not be able to get out."
Despite that, Mrs. Hinson has a lot of gratitude -- that they weren't in the house when things took a rapid turn, that her neighbors were able to get out and that they were safe. That's what is important, she said.
Their situation, instead of being a tragedy, may have a silver lining or two, Mrs. Hinson said.
"It's important to do stories like this and let people share from their heart," she said. "People need to hear this kind of good news.
"There's so much negativeness in the world, and I just feel like when you share your heart and share your feelings and people know that you truly are, no matter what you're going through, you're still concerned about people in our county, other people in our state, other people down in Florida. I mean, we've been praying for all those folks. The people in Haiti. Our heart still goes out to them. There are many lives that have been lost. I'm just fortunate that we've not dealt with any of that."
The things she lost, even all the items she put up higher for safe-keeping, were, after all, just things.
"I think about how I had boxed my pictures and stuff up and I put them in a place that I didn't think that they would be bothered," she said. "I thought, you know, how many times did I ever get these pictures out and really look at them? Not unless I really had a need.
"But you know, the most important things that I want to remember, that are dear to me, are in my mind and in my memories. That makes those things seem a little less important, even though you'd still like to have those things. But it's what's in your heart and soul and your memory, what you remember."
That doesn't mean she is having an easy time of all this. But she is trying to stay positive, she says.
"It hurts. There's no question about it," she said. "I've cried. But like I say, it is what it is. We can't do anything about it.
"I have had several people tell me, 'Renee, I wouldn't be dealing with it like you are' but I have had a real peaceful spirit, a real peaceful feeling and it's coming from God. I'm sure when I go back to the house it will be hard. I loved where we lived. But that's part of life. You've got to be able to accept and you've got to be able to go on."
Efforts are already being made to elicit donations to help the family. One is online at you caring.com. Donations can also be sent to Mrs. Hinson's daughter, Jessica Jackson, 1830 Jonesboro Road, Dunn, N.C., 28334, or for a gift card collection, to Cindy Blizzard Fields, P.O. Box 23, Morehead City, N.C. 28557.