Like several other families on the island who totally lost homes, our neighbors opted to buy a pre-manufactured home. This has often been a decision after the hurricane based on many factors from cost to value to the long wait time involved in getting a new house built from the ground up. Once here, with a little bit of installation work, the house is ready for occupation.
The fascinating thing about this house, though, was the day of its arrival.
Our street is just a one block long dead end street that is not wide enough to have even a center line. The location for the new house was not only off to the side, it was both elevated and perpendicular to the street itself.
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| Liftoff! |
So, a giant crane arrived first. Then the power company people came and took down the wires, turning off all the street’s electricity in doing so. Then the first half of the house was backed down the street, closing the street totally and “trapping” all the residents for the next five hours.
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| All the way over the trees. |
But...what a good show. The crane was hooked to the half-house with cables, then hoisted high in the air over the trees. It was guided by men on the ground who had hold of “leashes” fastened to the ends of the house. They perfectly guided it into place, along with the skill of the crane operator, and set it precisely on top of the piling structure where it was intended to go. This entire process was repeated a second time with the other half of the house, and, it was in place. As these halves were lifted, we could see that even the appliances and furniture were already in place inside the new house, just waiting for residents.
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| A perfect landing! |
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