Right on, Ken. No more than during our experience with Hurricane Irma last year did I realize that The Weather Channel cares about nothing but their own bank account. Meantime, they’re ruining travel economies one storm at a time. “Life threatening storm surge”, “potential for mass destruction,” “setting up for a catastrophe”…If they cared at all, they would provide follow-up to all the hyperbole by letting viewers know which areas were most affected and that outside of those areas, the best way to help is to keep travel plans in place.
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how’s your home? Is the beach house still standing? Can you get to it? I saw I-40 is flooded.
They opened the island back up to residents yesterday and one of our neighbors checked on it for us. We have a lot of trees down in the backyard, but no damage to the house. With all the roads flooded getting to the area, we are going to wait a couple more days before we try to go. Maybe Thursday or Friday. We lost another booking for this weekend, and it looks like it will be a while before tourists will be allowed back if they could even get there.
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Glad things turned out relatively well.
I just saw a pic of a home in New Bern (coastal NC) where the sand dune was now filling the pool. The only indication there was a pool was the top arch of the pool handrail peeping above the sand.
Yeah, they got it bad North of us. The eye passed right over our place. Locals were posting video and one even ran out on the beach filming during the eye. There was some damage around us, but nothing like they saw in New Bern and that surrounding area. I still have not been able to make it that way due to work & kids school, but still plan to Thursday or Friday. We had some neighbors do a closer look and walk through it today and we have downed trees leaning on the house, but no windows broken or real damage.
This afternoon they started allowing non-residents and tourists back as so much of the local economy depends on it. Power is back on to most of the island. Curfew is still in effect though 8pm to 6am. It’s been a stressful week, but we are counting our blessings here.
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Wanted to follow up on this, been busy dealing with the aftermath. I finally made it back there Friday and spent the weekend running a chainsaw and dragging brush around. Our entire backyard was covered in trees, but our only real damage was a ripped window screen. After recruiting some help and neighbors pitching in our backyard is entirely cleared. It was something we wanted to make happen, just not how we wanted it done. It was great to find good neighbors and folks around us all willing to help recover. We all tried to help each other as much as we could, and it was great to see the community effort.
Since the storm we had numerous inquiries from contractors and insurance adjusters looking to rent for longer term. We currently have a roofing company from Florida staying there for a week, then have some more typical guests coming for a wedding. Glad to get that and know tourists aren’t afraid to stay away. Heading in to the off season as we are, it’s been good to get some bookings back. We have offered our place to full time residents folks displaced, though our availability is a bit chopped up with prior reservations. We’ll help where we can at a discounted rate for those folks.
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Glad damage was minimal and the storm yard assistance showed the best in people. I’ve got people displaced by SC flooding in my condos. For so many it is a terribly difficult situation. We are lucky to have been fairly unscathed.