September 20, 2017
At 1:05 a.m. my mom’s power went out. Raindrops were coming through the roof in several areas. A tree branch was constantly banging against the window. Not knowing it was a branch, we thought the storm was getting in.
At 4 a.m. we could feel and hear the winds intensifying. They felt like they were at about 145 mph. Outside, one could hear trees snapping, objects flying and banging against the street. As scary as everything sounded, the storm hadn’t landed yet! It would touch down between 4 and 7 a.m. and last until 11 at night. The winds were now at about 185 mph with gusts up to 210 mph! The hurricane was a category 5! Outside, the sounds were deafening! We continued sleeping on/off and praying for God’s protection.
Sensing a break in the storm at around 9 a.m. we carefully opened the front door. The neighbor’s shed was nowhere to be found! Metal roofs were blown away. Entire roofs as well as doors, walls, and windows were gone off some structures. We closed the door to our ‘line shack’ and waited as we turned on our small, compact solar-powered radio. That radio would be our companion for the next three months.
At around noon, folks began to open their doors to assess their surroundings. We were glad to see them. No one around us was hurt, though so many roofs were gone. Trees were knocked over or snapped in pieces. Some were shredded down or stripped bare. As we tuned in to our radio, we began to learn what had happened: The remaining 800 cellphone towers were out of service, there would be no sign of a postal worker or any type of delivery man for two full weeks. We had no water, no power, no cells, no landlines, no ATM service, no banks, no grocery stores, no pharmacies, no gas stations, there was nothing available for what seemed like an eternity.
We needed to know if our son and two grand-kids were alive. On the second day after the storm, we were able to see him. We were very glad. We were also very glad to know we were alive and had survived. Fortunately, before the storm, we had purchased some 24 lbs. of ice. We had also filled soda bottles with drinking water. There was food we had brought from our home the previous day as well as my mom’s stuff. At least for the next few days, we would be somewhat alright. God had spared us. But how did our log cabin fare? Did it survive the storm being located high in the mountains surrounded by trees on three sides?
We have worked for 26 years on it. From laying a concrete foundation by hand to lugging with 150 lb. logs. Would we be able to get up there? With our son I was able to visit our cabin site. The avenue to get there was closed on one side as light posts and phone posts alongside power lines and satellite cables littered the street. Mangled trees were everywhere. Missing roofs galore were everywhere we looked. Entire homes were gone.
An interesting thing occurred as we were about ½ mile from home: As I was telling my son to check if my cousin had removed his solar panels, my son excitedly said, “Look Pa, the cabin’s still there! I see all of it even the deck!” I got teary-eyed. Nineteen years earlier, right after hurricane Georges, as we drove near the same spot, we couldn’t bare to look to see how our cabin fared. Our son told everyone in the car to close their eyes, & then exclaimed the same words, “Look, the cabin’s still there!” That was good news. We were so happy. God had proved Himself faithful again!
This time around, we couldn’t access our road, it was completely covered with fallen trees. We had to park far away and climb over a fence & walk the rest of the way. The post carrying our power line had been snapped in two. We had lost some roll roofing in our second-floor bedroom dormer and hundreds of gallons of water had gotten through. Most of the windows had been shuttered. The newer ones which took the brunt of the storm winds, were not-including our bedroom’s. Water ran down to the other bedroom. We put down tarps to try to hold the water from causing more damages.
As we assessed our damages, we noticed our workshop and storage room structure, as well as our shed also lost their roofing materials. We spoke to three-four neighbors all of which separately described the storm night as “if an atomic bomb had been dropped.” One neighbor, upon hearing so many pop-crackle-snaps, kept looking at our home to see if the sounds heard were our logs flying away. All our trees were snapped or burned. Everything looked hideous. In the days to follow, my wife and grand-kids would also come along to help clean up. Each time, we had to dump buckets of water from both rooms. With no electricity and no running water, we had to do the best we could & not hang around too long. We also couldn’t remove the shutters cause another hurricane had been announced as being on its way.
Life as we knew it had just taken a new twist; it would never be the same again for us or for the millions of residents on the island. Everyone had been impacted and affected one way or another. Stay tune for more adventures in the days ahead.
Lord, thank you for being our refuge during the darkest (literally) time of our lives. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.