Maria, I'm a ways in from the Carolina coast, so I haven't been through that many hurricanes, but there have been a few. In 1996, Hurricane Fran went right over Raleigh -- the eye of the storm moved over our house. It came in overnight; I'd just figured, hey, we'd get some rain, no big deal. My husband stayed awake most of the night listening to the storm and the radio. I was pregnant so I just slept
We were out of power for five days, huge trees had come down everywhere, tons of damaged homes, cars, etc. Our house wasn't hit, thank God, but I remember taking a walk around downtown and just being astonished and appalled at the devastation. Nowhere near New Orleans scale, of course, but shocking enough for me!
We've had other storm systems come through here (last August/Sept, it seemed like we had a storm every weekend), but they tend to have downgraded to tropical storms by the time they hit us. Still quite a lot of wind and rain, of course.
I'd gotten a little complacent about them, I think, until this past month... cat 5 storms are seriously scary.
I've been praying for everybody in Rita's path... stay safe and check in when you can.
PJ