In answer to all of the texts, voicemails and inboxes, we are all okay, dry and hunkering down with Grandma in RVC. Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers.
We've had no phone, cable or internet service here and cell phone service is also down. The super hyped Verizon 3G doesn't work at all either. Phone and cable just came back on about 15 minutes ago here, thank goodness, so while it's up and running I'll update you while I can.
Yesterday I parked my truck on Long Beach Road and hiked several blocks through water up to my knees to get to our home. There were trees down everywhere. I was expecting to find the huge old swamp maple that hangs over our home collapsed into it, but that old sucker was still standing! There were some soffits and gutters down, and pumpkins, firewood, telephone poles, fences and other debris smacked up against the house and garage. Okay, I thought, the garage is flooded. I had expected that after listening to the news, even though that's never happened before. That's at an elevation of 7 1/2 feet.
When I looked up at the front door I saw a piece of driftwood sitting where the welcome mat should be and instantly knew that the main floor of the house had been flooded. That's at an elevation of 10 1/2 feet. We have the highest elevation (for the first finished floor) on our block. When I opened the door I found out that my fears were correct. We got about a foot of water on the main floor, so that means the tide surged to about 11 1/2-12 feet. The house stinks like fish and we are going to have to toss everything in the garage and on the first floor. We have flood insurance, so hopefully it will all be covered. I've been meaning to pare down lately anyway.
We have not suffered nearly as badly as so many of our friends and neighbors. Like I said our home was higher than most. No one in our town escaped damage. Many have total losses! All of their belongings; furniture, clothes, photo's, keepsakes and family treasures are gone or destroyed. There are homes that need to be totally rebuilt. I've heard about quite a number of fires out here as well as the mind numbing numbers in Breezy (where we also have friends) and will try to verify those things now that we have Internet and news access again.
There are boats everywhere, in front of the car wash, the gas station, the funeral parlor, even the entrance to Ruby Tuesday! There's no gas, because the electricity is out. One Hess station was open a couple towns over, but the lines were as long as they were in the 1970's during the gas crisis.
It's a really sad sight, but we're a hard working lot around this town. We're used to taking our knocks, and still caring for our neighbors, families and friends. None of us are going to crawl up and die. Time to clean up and rebuild.
Thanks for your prayers, and please keep them up for our neighbors who are suffering so much more than we are.
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