2017-09-11 Hurricane Irma

There are 33 photos on this page, about 3 times the usual number for one of my photo essays.  For that reason, I'll try to be as brief as possible. 

In a nutshell, Hurricane Irma passed to the west of us on Monday, September 11th. We were  hit with her heaviest winds.  We had prepared but no one can prepare for all the unforseeable damage. 



Here's a list of some of the damages:
  • Our 3 largest trees in the backyard we toppled.  
  • We lost about a 5th of our roof shingles.
  • A lean-to attached to my tool shed was crushed.
  • Parts of our back yard fence were crushed.
  • Garden machinery was damaged.
  • Our shed's metal siding and roofing were damaged.
  • One of the shed's end-walls was pushed in.
  • Our well tank was toppled.
  • Neighborhood power was out.
Fortunately, no one was hurt.

You can view many other pages on this website to see what the "BEFORE" photos looked like.  Here are the "AFTER" photos.

There was some water damage from the water pouring in.




The water damage was caused by so many roof shingles being blown off.




Here's an end view of the 70 ft. tall Chinaberry trees that was blown down.  It was so tall that the treetop limbs blocked the door to my toolshed.




Here's a front view of the same tree.  The tree was about 79 inches around at the base (2 ft. thick).




Here's a closeup of the same tree showing how the weight of it crushed my lean-to.




And here's an end view of the tree and it's large stump that was nearly as tall as I am when it was uprooted.




The two other trees that were blown over.  The Chinaberry (right rear) was only slightly smaller than the first.  It was 74 inches around and 65 feet tall.

The tree closest to the camera is an Eastern Cottonwood about 30 feet tall.




The first thing I did was call my bishop and our men's leader at church.  I reported my situation and checked to see how they were.  They both said they were ok.  I also called about one of the widows in our church to see if she was safe.  I called family members to check ont hem then told them about our situation.  They were all OK except for power outage and a a few limbs downs.

My son John and his son-in-law, Floyd Freestone, were first to respond when I told my family I needed help.

L to R in the photo below are my daughter JoAnna's son-in-law, Marshall Fadely, her sons Porter and Caleb, my sons Adam and John, and Floyd on the right.




The water tank was pushed over.  Power was off so I did not know the condition of our well.




I called fellow church member and contractor Mike Thigpen.  In the photo below my son-in-law Glen (JoAnna's husband) and Mike are surveying the damage.

Mike brought one of his construction trailers and a gas generator he used to test the repairs he made to my plumbing.  By the end of the day we had power and water.  After we settled with the insurance company Mike repaired everything else.




Glen and JoAnna's son Porter was skilled with a chainsaw.




Here's Porter in the treetop with my son John looking on.




Mike Thigpen's family joined him.  Altogether, they had 3 chainsaws going at the same time.




There were a great many limbs to be moved out of the way so many family and friends came to help move them.  Here in the foreground (below) are my sons John and Adam (orange shirt) and grandsons in the distance.




Left to right in the photo below are Caleb, one of Mike Thigpen's sons (Chris), John's son-in-law, Floyd (U.S. Marines vet), Glen's son-in-law, Marshall (U.S. Army vet), another friend of Mike Thigpen's  (Danny), and my son Adam. 




These guys were joined by my son-in-law Ed Wallace who is on the right in the photo below.




Grandson Caleb is grimicing at the heavy load.  Or maybe he's just being silly.




Ed and Adam.  Some of the limbs were quite heavy.




I wish I could have done as much as they were doing but I'm a 70+ year old cancer survivor with a heart condition.  The energy just isn't there so I did what I could.  That's me in the picture below.




In the photo below is Mike Thigpen's grandson Bryant wearing a yellow shirt.  He's one of our 12-year-olds at church.  Bryant came with his granddad and worked as hard as anyone.  The others are (L to R) my son Adam in the orange shirt, my son John wearing the red cap, me, and Marshall Fadely who was mentioned above.




Later two more of our grandsons showed up: Andy and Kaleb.  Here they are headed for the wood pile as they greet me on my return trip.




Glen, Andy, and two of Mike Thigpen's folks, Chris and Danny.




Shown below is Kaleb, my wife Linda's youngest grandson.  He enlisted in the U.S. Army 2 years after we took this photo.  Behind him are Danny, Andy, Ed, and Floyd.




Caleb, Ed, and John.  To avoid confusion, Linda and I refer to these two grandsons as "C" Caleb and "K" Kaleb.




Here's a good photo of Floyd (U.S. Marines).  These two vets, Floyd and Marshall, were probably the hardest workers of all.




John, Andy, Floyd, Adam, Marshall, Ed, and Danny.




Chris and Kaleb in the foreground took a break.  That's my wife Linda and daughter JoAnna on the right.  JoAnna came over to see how her husband Glen, sons Porter and Caleb, and son-in-law Marshall were doing.  

Linda and I have 11 children.  When I was younger, some of my co-workers made fun of me for having such a large family.  I wonder how they would feel about our big family after seeing them respond in such an emergency.




Here's Porter and Mike Thigpen atop the tool shed.  I was really worried for Mike.  He's only a few years younger than I am and had no business atop that building.  But if you knew him, you'd think he was never going to slow down.  His health grew worse and he finally had to retire a couple years after this storm when he reached my age.




While Porter and Mike were making short work of the big Chinaberry on the toolshed, the rest of Mike's family were busy removing the Eastern Cottonwood that had fallen in the other part of my yard.




They cut the thing into manageable pieces and threw them over the fence where the other guys put them on the wood pile.




Before long, the guys had uncovered the lean-to enough that I could see underneath it.




Here's a wider view of a similar shot as Porter removed the last long limb.




A closeup revealed that all my yard equipment, although tossed about was still in pretty good shape.  I later discovered that God had greatly blessed us.  Much of it was unharmed.  Only parts of the machinery were damaged.  A yard sweeper was totalled.

My John Deere mower took the full weight of the tree.  When the roof fell on it, it damaged the hood and seat but I got another 3 years of service out of the mower.



I have to put in a plug here for my insurance company, Allstate.  I called them the day of the storm.  In less than a week an insurance adjuster showed up, assessed the damage, and wrote me a check for most of it.  I used this to begin repairs and got the remainder of the money within the next 6 weeks after we were able to fully assess all remaining damages and calculate the cost.

People can save money with other companies.  I won't argue that.  And my adjuster was no pushover.  He was a tough, no-nonsense businessman.  But he was quite fair and anxious to see that I got as much coverage as he could figure out how to give me.  In the end, I had very little property that wasn't replaced.

Linda and I owe a great debt of gratitude and appreciation to God, to our family, and to our fellow church members and friends who came to our aid when we needed them most.  Thanks be to all.

To see photos taken AFTER repairs were made, CLICK HERE.

 
~ END ~