Quick Update

It's kind of late but I wanted to make sure I posted something today about our progress. Especially since in the last few hours of the day I feel like we made some pretty significant strides towards getting repairs done.

Two big pieces of news today:

First, the reason this blog posting is going to be short is we spent much of the night going through the pictures we took over the last three days for the adjuster. At 4pm today the insurance adjuster called to schedule our appointment to come to our house. I can't tell you how relieved this made me. They'll be coming over tomorrow afternoon (4/20) and we hope after that meeting we'll know more.

Second, a few minutes ago our neighbor called to tell us that the power company is at our house (yes 9:15pm) and just installed a box for our electricity. We *think* we now have electricity. YAYYYYYY!!!!!! We'll find out for sure tomorrow.

Two awesome things.

Tomorrow we plan to talk to the appraiser and see what his recommendations are regarding lodging, in addition to all of the other things. Initially we thought we'd check out of the hotel and go home right away now that we have power. After thinking about it a little more rushing immediately back into the house before we've been able to get all of the glass and fiberglass up probably isn't the best idea. From there, we'll figure out what to do next.

Again, many thanks for the prayers, offers for help, and concern. We're doing okay. Today was the most difficult day (emotionally) for me, out of the last three, but given the progress made towards the end of the day and into this evening I'm feeling much better tonight. =)

xo
Darlene, Stephen & KK

Another Video: http://www.wral.com/weather/video/9462784/
Some additional information: During this broadcast they mention the baseball cards that were literally on every property on our block. I've been told that the collector had been saving the cards all his life. He had quite a collection. On Saturday the kids of the neighborhood wanted to help. Someone suggested that they be tasked to finding baseball cards to give back to the owner. On Sunday the kids collected more than 500 cards and helped clean up debris in the process and presented them back to the owner. Today we were told that someone found an autographed mickey mantle card in their yard. Of course the card is damaged but the sentiment was there when it was returned. People are amazingly kind.

Hope is the most precious treasure to a person.

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

April 16, 2011 Tornado

As I've moved through the last 30 hours I have so many mixed emotions. I know many of you are wondering what happened. I know this because you've called, texted, emailed and messaged through various ways in Facebook. To say we're grateful for your messages, thoughts and prayers would be an understatement. Just a few minutes ago the Weather Channel panned over our house. It's a surreal moment to see your house and all of your neighbors homes displayed on the news.

In order to try to keep folks updated on what's happening I thought I'd use the blog for the next week or so to let you know what's happening. We've been trying to call folks as able but even with our best intentions we haven't been able to reach everyone. I promise it's not because we haven't wanted to call... It's just been a little busy.

So what happened?
Yesterday (4/16) Stephen, Katherine, my sister Nicole and I went to a Roller Derby in Dorton Arena in downtown Raleigh. My sister told us about it and it seemed like a fun time so we thought we'd go see one. As we arrived and got our beverages and popcorn the announcements started. The MC indicated that they were not going to use the siren to start the Derby this time around. They said they were going to reserve the siren for an emergency warning as there were multiple reports of tornados in the area. This isn't uncommon this time of year but generally tornado watches (in our previous experience) didn't exceed the watch level.

About 5 minutes into the Derby the siren went off. We followed our instruction to evacuate to the basement of the arena. For those not from the Raleigh area, Dorton Arena is an all glass domed arena. Had the tornado actually come through there I couldn't imagine the glass that would have gone flying everywhere. Truly. That said, we were in quite possibly one of the safest "safe places" in Raleigh. A basement of brick and concrete. Pretty good as far as secure that the building wouldn't blow away.

About 15 minutes into being in the basement a man came through to and was yelling to sit on the floor, turn around and face the wall and lower our heads. I'll remind you we were with a two (almost three) year old. The only reason I remember it was a man coming through (I'll be honest) is because Katherine kept asking why that man told us to put our heads down? My sister and I tried to make it a game to look at Katherine's shoes... We drew on some paper with some crayons and practiced our letters... We did this as it was at least 15 minutes we were in this position. I can't believe how incredibly patient and strong our daughter is.

After we were told we could leave the basement we went upstairs. As we were walking upstairs Stephen's cell phone rang. It was ADT indicating that our heat sensor (that detects fire through our alarm) was going off. Initially we were chalking it up to having had some work done to our alarm the previous day and thinking maybe the wind did something to make the alarm go off accidentally... but we weren't home. ADT asked if we wanted the fire department to be called. Ah, yes. thanks. At this point K indicated she needed to go potty so we headed off to the bathroom while deciding whether to high tail it home or not. When we returned from the bathroom Stephen said that ADT had called back and said the lines were all busy and they couldn't get through to 911. We should head home and continue to try to call. Ah. Bad.

So off we went. Never in this discussion did it enter my mind that a tornado came to our neighborhood. Not once. I don't know why. I kept thinking electrical short in the house and maybe the house was on fire but having the tornado come through our neighborhood or street... Didn't consider it. As we drove home we saw some downed limbs, branches, etc. Stuff you'd see after a normal high wind, rain, hail storm. As we turned down the street heading to our neighborhood we noticed that the roof of the small car dealership on the corner had been taken off. OFF. Okay. Small panic. Kept driving and large chunks of the fence along the outside of our neighborhood facing the road was missing. Panic increasing. Heading down our street... damage and started to increase in panic level. As we approached the pool on our street and got to our corner full panic set in. I mean, almost wet your pants and tears streaming holy "S" moment.

We asked Nicole to stay with Katherine until we could scope out our house. We didn't know if we still had one. As we walked down our block the devastation was, well, devastating. My heart stopped I think. This might sound dramatic but it's truly a moment I won't forget in my life. Ever. Seeing your neighbors homes fully exposed with roofs off. Walls totally open. Pieces of homes laying everywhere. Rain still coming down. As we continued down our block we kept looking for the top of our house. It was there. We couldn't see the front and all the while I'm crying and saying ohmygodohmygodohmygod. My amazing husband held me, walked together and continued to reassure me that regardless, we'd be okay. We were safe.

We got to the front of our house and saw that our home was still standing. Given the unbelievable nature of what was around us, this alone, was a miracle. MIRACLE. We'd forgotten the keys to the house back in the car so Stephen started to head back to the car as I continued down the street to our neighbors who I could see had no home. It was flattened. We all started to account for one another. I don't know exactly how long before the storm had gone through but I'm estimating maybe 15 minutes. I think the alarm went off as the beginning of the storm came. There was no power, etc. by the time the tornado came through.

As I walked around our house I saw that again, the backyard and back of the house had damage, but nothing compared to what our neighbors experienced. As I was circling back around the house a friend and co-worker came around the backyard with her son. That hug... It felt good to know she and her family were okay and that we were okay. She and her family stayed with us for the next 4+ hours helping us do what we could to immediately tend to the issues of the house. We finally got inside and saw that we had 3 windows that blew out. Given we have about 25+ windows in the house... This was pretty amazing. Our living room / playroom; dining room and our bedroom were the rooms that sustained window damage. With the help of our friend and her family we were able to clean up the glass in the downstairs rooms. We didn't do much of anything with our bedroom because the volume of glass was too much to absorb for me. It was a room I was avoiding.

Lots of things happened I know during this time. We talked to neighbors, cried, hugged, tried to laugh at some things (saying our HOA was going to come through today and issue warnings that we all needed to power wash our houses)... At 9pm I thought it was still 6:00 so truly time was lost on me. At some point, Stephen and our friends husband went to a home improvement store to get some supplies to secure the windows and ensure that no other debris could fly in nor could anyone looking to maximize on the devastation. Or at least if they tried they'd get pretty seriously injured. (We didn't remove the jagged glass from the windows.) I'd asked a Sheriff whether someone would be in our neighborhood to ensure we didn't get any looters and he indicated that we were one of many neighborhoods that sustained damage... He had no idea. Fortunately one very kind officer stayed and kept watch. He traveled up and down our block all night.

Another family of friends came over during this time and helped us tape up the windows, play with Katherine and just do "stuff". I really don't remember everything now as I look back. The hours flew by and yet time stood still. We called family members and asked them to post something to let folks know we were okay and to call the other family members that needed calling. (And yes, I will give KUDOS to my sister's Verizon coverage. It remained available throughout the whole ordeal. AT&T... Sporadic at best.)

I've never experienced the support, kindness and downright love that I have in the last 30 hours. Friends just came. We didn't ask. They were just there. They came within hours to help do whatever they could to help us. I don't think they expected to see what they did... Neither did we expect to be in the situation we are. Friends came today to bring us food, play with Katherine and just help. The volume of volunteers on our block was incredible. HUNDREDS of people came today. They came with food, water, muscle and hugs. I cried a lot today. Out of extreme gratitude. For the first couple of hours we were home, we declined all offers of help. For me, and I still struggle with this, I looked around me and thought I'm the LEAST of the worries of this street. Please go help the others that lost much much more. Stephen called this "survivors guilt". I'll admit I look and am in awe of being spared what everyone around me was not. When I tell you our side of the block was devastated, it's truly not an understatement. Houses collapsed. Complete sides of houses ripped off. Roofs missing. Cars destroyed. I don't know how or why we were as lucky as we were. I'm so thankful to God, our many Angels in heaven and our AMAZING friends and volunteers.

I'll share some of the more specific stories in another blog but special thanks to these people:
Nicole - THANK YOU for being the rock you were during our underground time and as we arrived home, taking care of Katherine... We're sorry about your car. I hope you get power back soon.

Miller Family - John, thank you for *thinking* for Stephen. Thank you for helping us secure the windows. MM, J & L, THANK YOU for helping us clean up the inside of the house and get it ready for taping. M, thank you for finding us food. I know it took some hunting!!! We can't thank you enough. You were our first on-site help. You never cease to amaze me.

Krieman Family - Thank you for coming to help. Thank you for playing with Katherine. Thank you for calling people you know that know what happens in these situations, to help get us advice. Thank you for opening your home to us. Thank you for being the supportive amazing friends that you are. Even down to the littlest one your kindness and warmth was so appreciated and comforting.

Vanderbilts - When the Vanderbilts come work gets DONE!! I needed your kick in the pants today. When you heard I'd been avoiding our bedroom you jumped on it and we got it "checked off the list"! Frank and M.... You rock. My house is feeling more and more like my home again. Thank you for helping us clean up our yard. Who knew M's first raking experience would be post tornado in our yard. And you brought us some of our favorite foods, drinks, etc. You know how to comfort us!!!

Marie: Thank you for contacting your uncle for us and for offering to help us get a place to stay. Your help and your uncles advice were greatly appreciated.

Kristen & Adam: You came by and not only offered your support but you also gave a little girl a fun afternoon. She was pretty excited about her "bird" and the smoothie. Thank you for taking her out and getting her away from the craziness for a little bit. She had a blast!! We're very appreciative.

We love you all and can't tell you how much we appreciate all you've done to help us. If I missed anyone I promise it's not intentional. Every single bit of help we've received has been appreciated.

So many others called, texted and messaged offering help, support, love and prayers. Thank you. From the bottom of our hearts. We appreciate it more than you can imagine.

We'll keep you updated as the week goes on. xoxo ~ Darlene, Stephen & Katherine