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n the few miles southwest of Oriental, several small neighborhoods stretch out, single file and line the shore of the Neuse River. The waterfront land is a draw and it delivers. From the homes and the porches and docks there, the nation’s widest river stretches out at just about its widest point.

Blue skies over a few miles of the Neuse River as seen from China Grove. Eight days earlier, Hurricane Irene was lashing the docks, the beach and the homes there.

Hurricane Irene showed that the same river that provides such a wide view, also brings several miles of fetch. That was made clear over and over during visits to China Grove, as well as Neuse Village Road and Hardison Lee Farm Road in Arapahoe.

Furniture and other debris piles up along Janeiro Road in Arapahoe in the days after Hurricane Irene. All along the Neuse to the south and west of Oriental, homes were hit hard. One resident said the buildings were reduced to “breakwaters” as Irene rolled in.

The residents flooded there include Ross Pease, dockmaster at Oriental Harbor Marina, Jim Edwards who runs the Bow to Stern sailing classes in Oriental, novelist Liza Wieland and Jayne Stasser, a regular vendor at the Oriental Farmers’ Market. From this sampling, a glimpse in to both the force of Irene and what it’s like to live near what is usually a placid river. But sometimes isn’t.

We start in Arapahoe, just off of Hardison-Lee Road where Ross Pease lives with his wife, Donna.

“Yes, it’s wonderful to live on the water and yes, it’s great.” says Donna Pease, “but at what price? I just don’t know if sitting on that pier is worth it anymore.”

Donna Pease is surveying her yard on the Neuse River, about a mile from Dawson’s Creek. Their brick ranch house had flooded a few inches in Hurricane Isabel. But as many others found, Irene was different.

Ross and Donna Pease left their flooding home during Hurricane Irene and then waded and swam across the soybean field behind them to get away. A week later, they were still finding things amid the plants, such as the gutter pipe Ross is holding.

“Isabel rolled in, “ she says. “This one crashed in.” Around 8 on that Saturday morning, the waves pushed through a door in their sunroom and from there in to their house, a few steps up from the porch. A propane tank floated by. The eye of the storm was still an hour away and their house was flooding.

Donna and Ross made the decision to leave with the clothes on their backs. With two friends, brothers Joe and Tom Hampel who were visiting from out of state, they set out toward a neighbor’s whose house was up on pilings. They waded across the yards but then Donna says, the strong current coming off the river kept their neighbor’s staircase out of reach.

Ross and Donna Pease and the soybean field that was a sea they crossed during Hurricane Irene..

A vehicle was half a mile away on Hardison Lee Farm Road, so, with the current behind them, they walked and waded down the dirt road out of their neighborhood. Soon that path was blocked by a fallen tree. One of their friends pointed to the soybean fiel whose plants he had noticed a few days earlier were only 2 or 3 feet high; now he was seeing tops of the plants at the far end of the field. The four of them swam and waded across the sea of soybeans. Ross’s dog Leo swam back twice to Ross and one of their friends who were lagging behind.

Loyal dog, Leo, swam back twice to Ross Pease. Ross’ wife, Donna, says once they got to a truck and drove to New Bern, Leo stayed wedged between them in the back seat, his head on the console and his paws (as Donna demonstrates) over the edge.

Getting to the vehicle was just the beginning. The four of them — and the two dogs, Stella and Leo — navigated the roads of the county. They tried to get to Donna’s workplace — Worldwide Marine Training — where they thought they could stay, but the roads were blocked by downed lines. They traipsed back to 306 and to the courthouse in Bayboro. From there, they worked their way to a friend’s place in New Bern. It was 5:30p by then.

A week later, Donna says she realizes that they did everything they weren’t supposed to do. They stayed at their home til the height of the storm and then tried to get away. We are lucky, she says. Physically, their injuries were few. Ross shows a bit of poison ivy he brushed in to climbing out of a ditch at the end of the field.

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Posted Friday September 16, 2011 by Melinda Penkava

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