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Meanwhile, Pat began to drive from New Bern toward Florence, wanting to help, but the roads were becoming more and more blocked by downed trees and wires. She spoke with her husband on the phone a lot, asking at one point how he managed to keep his cell phone dry. He told her he’d found a coffee can that he used for doling out feed and that he kept the cell phone in there, under a lid.

Ted Morris. He spent a while in the cow shed during the height of Hurricane Irene, perched on a fence to be above the surge waters. Behind him is one of the buckets he put over his head to protect himself from Irene’s flying debris.

When the waters ebbed hours later, a half dozen cows were gone. Pat says she thinks that in the unexpectedly high surge, they washed down the creeks and out in to the Sound. About 15 cows were corralled back to the Morris’ farm. Ted had hoped to breed them and have calves next winter, but without proper feed — hay and feed were waterlogged — he sold them instead. He says the price he got was low, because the drought in Texas has caused a glut of cows for sale.

Pat Morris points to the chicken coop where waters rose and where most of the hens flocked to higher perches. More than a dozen hens however, died in the hurricane which put at least three feet of water in the coop.

As for the chickens, more than a dozen drowned or disappeared. But most, says Pat figured out a way to fly to a higher perch in their coop. They were back to laying eggs within the week.

Pat Morris and her donkey, B-Bob (short for Billy Bob) He survived Irene, though hasn’t been braying as much. Pat says he misses the cows, some of whom disappeared in the storm. The rest of the cows were sold.

A week after Irene, when we visited, Pat and Ted were burning ruined bales of hay, waiting on calls and visits from insurance adjusters – and learning that changes in insurance policies in recent years left them with less coverage than they thought they had.

Pat and Ted Morris in the shed where he rode out part of Hurricane Irene.

They have those chickens, and the donkey — B-Bob – and the horses. A week after Irene, they’d also gotten a delivery of feed and dry hay from an equine relief organization. The Morrises hope to rebuild their home and get the garden going again. And maybe someday, raise some more cows.

Ahead, more from Florence, Paradise Shores and Whortonsville

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Posted Friday September 9, 2011 by Melinda Penkava