That was Katherine's fortune tonight at Pei Wei. Mine was, "No need to worry! You will always have everything you need." So appropriate.
For tonight's blog I thought I'd share some of what happened on Sunday and through today. Get caught up if you will!
Yesterday before we went home we decided to see if we could find a generator. We knew stores closest to Raleigh would more than likely be out due to the volume of houses that were without power. Not necessarily in the path of the tornado, but certainly in the path of the winds, rain, hail, etc. that caused its own damage around the city/county. We lucked out and the first store we went to we got the last one. We were pretty high on life at that point.
We headed home and when we arrived to our block we were stunned by the volume of people and news reporters that were around. As I mentioned yesterday hundreds of volunteers were out and about helping. Many restoration companies were on-site doing handling the immediate needs of the block. Things like covering windows, tarping over homes where whole sides of the house were missing, etc.
After hauling stuff up the street from the corner we realized that if we told the police we lived on the street, they'd let us drive our car up. Duh. Never thought to ask. I'll tell you - it made moving the generator A LOT easier. :)
As I mentioned yesterday initially we were hesitant to accept help. When you looked around there were homes that were previously two story houses that were now, literally, about 6' tall. We were in the mindset of PLEASE, go help them. We'll be fine!!! The first few groups moved on and then there was a group of Methodist Emergency Response Team members that came to our house. A husband and a wife. They were so very caring and understanding. She looked at me and said, "You CAN accept help. Your neighbors have help. There are plenty of us around to ensure everyone can get what you need." Humbling. She proceeded to ask what we could do inside with some ladies. SA told her about our bedroom and she immediately said that was absolutely something they could handle helping with. Little did I know my friend MV would arrive on the scene with her Dad and get me whipped into shape in quick order. :)
Nearly at the same time a friend, Kristen and her fiance Adam came over to see if they could help. We volunteer together on the JDRF YLC and Adam has a house a couple streets over. They offered to take K for a treat. She was thrilled when she got back showing me the birdie that Adam finessed from the McDonalds folks and a smoothie. (She LOVES strawberry banana smoothies at McDs.) :) Thank you both. She had so much fun. (Also, I didn't doubt that Kristen would win the dance contest... You're awesome Adam... but she's got moves!!!) ;)
MV arrived with bags of groceries filled with our favorite things, sandwiches and beverages. She also brought along some muscle (her dad... apparently they debated the whole "muscle" thing... I thought he had some guns!) ;) They both immediately kicked me in the pants and helped me get our bedroom in relative order. I can now walk through our bedroom without crunching glass under my feet and I can look at my bed all stripped of linens but more importantly, no visible glass on it. That by itself was a huge accomplishment.
MV and F then helped us rake the yard up of debris. You could see our green grass again!! It now has a certain "shimmer" that we've told all of the neighbors we hope they enjoy. We added it just for them. (The shimmer brought courtesy of the volumes of glass that continue to be in our yards... and will be, no doubt, for quite some time. Note: no walking in our grass barefoot for at least the next year or so.)
So yesterday was the holy smokes let's try to restore some order day... Today was the quieter catch up with the neighbors and huddle day. The news teams were kept off our block. They were all stationed down by our community pool which is why the coverage you'll see tonight is a different section of the block than you saw yesterday. Yesterday they were basically in front of our house. We're grateful to the police for keeping them at bay. The sheer volume of reporters was overwhelming at times. We'd managed to shy away from reporters and interviews ... until today. My darling husband was convinced by a super super nice camera man to do an interview. I was sucked in. They asked us to stand together. I really didn't think much would come of it... Until my phone and Stephen's phone started going crazy at about 6:35pm tonight. Apparently I made national news... One sentence. In tears. Wearing sunglasses (because I wasn't going to speak... and only spoke 30 seconds total). Hopefully I didn't embarrass myself too much. ;) No curlers in my hair so I'm considering it a success.
Tomorrow I expect that we'll have all moved onto another chapter in the post disaster stage... (First Shock; Second: Get busy; Third; talking and sharing) Now: Frustration. Some (us included) haven't heard from an adjuster or the insurance company about when someone will be coming out to assess the damages. Second instance dealing with our insurance company in 6 months (oh yeah, they big fat puffy heart us right now... ) and twice we're so much less than impressed with their response. Our neighbors have not only heard from their insurance companies, some already have checks in hand to cover incidentals like hotel, food, etc. Us... We call and they tell us they're quite busy due to the disaster. I say... No cr@p, eh?
Some lessons I've learned:
1. No matter how many times you flip the bathroom light switch on... IT WONT WORK!!!
2. Although you have water... The garbage disposal will NOT work. (seriously had shoved so much food down there from the refrigerator... happily flipped the switch and then yelled CRAP!!!!!!) I know. Not so bright.
3. Fiberglass gets everywhere. No, seriously. Everywhere.
4. An extension cord from your neighbors house to your house to power two little things (cell phone charger & vacuum) can make you feel like you are in civilization.
5. Tornados tearing down your street make for good weight loss plans. I don't recommend the disaster part... but it does help with appetite. (Or lack of one. :))
6. Just because a tornado came through your street, doesn't mean you're immune to sunburn.
7. Shimmery grass is the new "IN" thing on Serendipity. If you don't have it - you can't be part of our click.
8. Fiberglass crusted siding... Also IN. You're permitted to sweep off sections in order to reduce incoming fiberglass into your home (see #3). (One neighbor was asked if he wanted someone to come power wash his siding... he said "no, I don't want to be unlike my neighbors. :))
9. Did I mention the fiberglass gets everywhere thing? How about that it's REALLY itchy?
10. Best... A HS friend sent this to me in a message (thanks Kim!): The worst of mother nature brings out the best of human nature. So very very true.
Some of you have asked about the extent of damages. We've said it's nothing like our neighbors. And it's not. Today we started to quantify some of what we have. The short list of big things:
- Our heating/air conditioning units will need to be completely replaced. Inside (attic) and outside two units. They were ripped from the house and in our neighbors yard.
- Our roof sustained damage in multiple areas. We didn't realize the extent until the guys from Carolina Restoration were up there how much. We may need a new roof.
- All of our siding will need to be replaced. There are large chips/chunks/whole sections missing. The ins company may save certain "pieces" to recover... but the dents, chips, etc. will make that challenging.
- Our screened in porch will need to be rescreened entirely. Pieces of flying roof cut through the screen.
- Our bay window, one window broke but the other two sustained pretty good glass damage. They'll need to be replaced.
- The other two windows that broke and maybe some others will need to be replaced due to damage to the frame, etc.
- Carpet in our bedroom will need to be completely replaced due to the amount of glass that came through the window.
- Our truck has quite a bit of damage to the passenger side. Multiple large dents, scratches everywhere, etc. (This will be a priority soon as we have to turn in our lease in a couple of months!)
There are other things but these are some of the bigger things. Again, when you look left and right and see houses to the ground our damage doesn't look so bad. We started to go room to room to make a list of damage. It started to add up as we went from room to room. Again, SO GRATEFUL and so BLESSED to be and have what we have. The rest, doesn't matter. We'll figure it out.
Some companies and organizations that I really want to recognize for their help, support and kindness:
Olive Garden - The manager of the Olive Garden on Capital Blvd heard of the devastation on our block and sent an entire trunk of food over for the people on our street on Saturday. TONS of lasagna, breadsticks, etc. for everyone to eat.
Methodist & Baptist Churches: We referred to these folks as the Green group and the Orange group. In love I assure you. They were everywhere in their bright t-shirts and you knew who they were and that without question they'd help you do anything they could. At one point we had our pile of debris stacked in our front yard. The Green group came up and was answering our questions about "what next". They'd told us about the city coming to take the debris at one point in the next few days as long as it was on the curb. We looked at each other and about cried. We had a couple feet of debris stacked up over a pretty good space and it needed to be moved 3 feet over. Gut punch. No worries. The Green group (Methodist church) came and with a group of 10 or so had it moved for us, our front yard raked within minutes. MINUTES!!!! Incredible. We didn't even ask them to do it.
Carolina Ale House: Brought food for the block on Sunday. We didn't see what they brought but know that they were there.
Bright Funeral Home: I know what you're thinking. We thought the same thing. What in the world would the funeral home have for us? We were all accounted for, thankfully. They brought big tents. Tents that the "food command center" could use for shelter from the sun for the volunteers, emergency personnel and residents. How awesome!!!
Carolina Restoration: While it's their business to help after disaster situations I want to recognize them not for donations, etc. but for being THERE. They were on-site on Saturday immediately following the tornado and were WORKING first thing Sunday morning. Today we had an experience with a company that our insurance company sent out (we shall refrain from names at this point) that left us still looking for help to secure our home. They boarded two windows and left, promising to be back... They didn't come back. We called Carolina Restoration at about 4:00pm as they were working on our neighbors house and said, I know you're busy - but can you please come help us finish securing our house. Within 15-20 minutes they were there. They helped with securing our roof, siding, windows, etc. And gave us advice on some stuff inside the house and damage on lower parts of the exterior of the house. Fantastic. And the work they did left me feeling much more secure about ensuring our home wasn't further damaged.
YMCA: They offered free passes for the next several months to the children of the neighborhood. They realized that the kids aren't going to be able to play in our yards due to the debris. This is huge. I'm amazed they thought this far ahead.
Golden Corral: They offered a free meal to everyone in our family. We have passes to go have dinner one night. Also so very much appreciated. It lets us eat a meal together and not be surrounded by the debris and fiber glass in the air. So grateful.
I KNOW there are other companies and businesses that came to help. They were there. They didn't necessarily call themselves out, but I know others were there. They quietly did what needed to be done to help our community.
Some of you have asked what we need and how you can help. First and foremost, prayers and support. You've all given that in spades. We appreciate this more than you can imagine.
As for labor, right now since all of the outside is cleaned up we're focusing on the inside. We sincerely appreciate the offers of help, but it's really just going through each item/thing and determining whether to save, toss, etc. Today we started on the playroom. Still lots of work to do in there... but we started it.
As for "stuff". We don't really know right now. We're still going through things. And since we haven't had an assessment yet or know what insurance is covering or not... We're winging it a bit. We've been asked about Gift Certificates. Gift certificates for restaurants, Target or home improvement stores will not go to waste. In the end, as I said before, it's all just stuff. Your prayers and support are truly more than enough!!
Some of the links where coverage of our street has been:
http://www.wral.com/weather/video/9458034/
My famous one-liner: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7363151n
There are tons more online no doubt. I think my sister is the queen of finding our house or one of us on the news. :) (Thank you J for looking out for us!!)
Again, thank you all for the thoughts, prayers, support and love. We are so very grateful. Love to all!!!
xo
~ Darlene, Stephen & KK
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