Recovery in Progress

Back at home on the island this last week and we are seeing the beginnings of recovery from Dorian.  As we drive around most of the debris has been picked up...more is accumulating though...most cars have been hauled off, and some construction is beginning.

Kim and Reggie’s home is all gone. Directly across the street from us.

We still see more houses and now businesses being torn down totally.  The Edwards Motel is now gone along with the old Trolly Stop building, recently home to Ocracoke Judo studio.  We are seeing many houses being raised.  We can’t raise ours because it is too long and narrow for the beams to fit all the way under it.

Our friend, Debbie’s, house...up in the air.

We are, though, seeing work progress at home.  Armando and Luis have almost completed the new drywall installation, so it looks like we have rooms again.  When the drywall is finished we can move on to tile for the bathrooms and flooring for the rest of the house.  There is still a transportation issue: our replacement shower unit for the main bathroom has been on a truck in Norfolk for a month and cannot be delivered to the island until highway 12 to the north is reopened.  That holds up several things that cannot happen before it is installed.

We are going to have a living room again!

Outside we are cheered by the growth of the winter rye grass that I sowed everywhere!  Now we are sowing permanent fescue through the ryegrass, but the beautiful green covering the storm-caused bareness  is an encouraging thing to see.

Green grass over bare dirt is a Wonderful sight.

There has been a rough storm with wind and rain this weekend, but, we hope that it will not slow the progress of road repair.  Right now the road is scheduled to reopen on November 22.  We are hopeful.