Dorian Reality

We got home night before last and now all the reality is with us instead of second hand.

As soon as you approach the island there is a pervasive smell of wet decay.  Every breath is filled with this universal odor.  The worst thing is that the way our sense of smell works, in a little while you don’t notice it anymore.  Them you realize that it is still there but your mind has learned to ignore it.

Celeste and Melissa deliver the mail by hand out of the back of this van.  Packages are all under the tent.
UPS started delivery service on Monday...they are great!

The house and yard are worse than imagined.  One of our trees is on the neighbor’s house.  There are seven more trees that are uprooted and have to be removed.  (We are on the list.) We do have water now and we have some electricity in the house but not the garage apartment where we will need to live for a while. Right now we have a generator that is enabling us to live in the Airstream...what a dear blessing.

Our first view of our house.

ServePro came yesterday and determined that everything in the house, including the floors, up to two feet high is ruined and has to be ripped out.  Since the water was sewer and fuel polluted, everything under there has to be treated and dried before any repair can start.  All appliances are ruined, the kitchen ones only a year old.  For some strange reason the water heater works and we can get hot showers in the midst of it all.

This is the scene in front of nearly almost every home on the island.

The best thing is the community and all the volunteers that are here to help.  The island can’t hold any more volunteers as there is no place for them to stay...all the hotels are flooded.  Everyone is working and caring day and night.  The motto has become “Ocracoke Strong” as we all love and pull together.  Trish and I actually have everything we need...each other.  With that, though it is a long road, nothing can hurt us.

Strength and humor will get us through.