Irma's Toll

The storms raged through the night, and although we were fine at the end of it, Ye-Ye and Nana were not.  Irma took out three trees in their back yard, sending them downward into the grandparents' home.  It was quite a shock, as you can see.

Here's a closer picture of one tree's impact, a poplar that hit the chimney on the way down.

If you look closely, you can see through the window and outside again through the hole in the house. Branches are all over the front yard, and the back yard is covered in debris even more so, as you could imagine.  Telephone lines are down everywhere, as if a tornado came through this area.  Indeed, the entire peninsula there is littered with downed trees.  And it wasn't the pine trees that were the biggest victims.  You'd think that, but it was the oak and poplar trees that fell first, taking pine trees with them.

Here's Nana and Ye-Ye in the kitchen entrance, with a new skylight opportunity.  You can see the room above the kitchen here, and of course into the sky beyond that.  Insulation is everywhere.  And yet, they are still smiling here, which says a lot about their character.  They're spending the night with us tonight, as they will for a while now, at least until things can get taken care of at the house.  It's difficult to make that transition from "What just happened?  Why me?" to the healthier perspective of "At least everyone is okay, and our insurance is good."  It's upsetting and stunning, but it's something they can recover from, certainly not the end of the world.

Elsewhere, there are others suffering in Florida, in South Carolina, in Georgia, all with extreme damage and flooding.  Many, many, many don't have power right now, but here's where you realize complaints about power outages shouldn't get too loud:  my parents don't have a house.

And that's the same for many more.  We know of at least two others that saw trees come down into their house.  One of those is Mrs. Pam, Madison's piano teacher.  Her house was - in her words - "decimated."  Also, another family we love in Brunswick has seen their house flooded.  It's been bad.

Irma's toll in the Caribbean was severe, and then Florida it was heavy.  But the surprise was here in Georgia.  We're grateful for the miraculous downgrading of the storm, how we wound up not experiencing its full power.  Because what we experienced was enough.  Like any one of these hurricanes, Irma's real toll can't be measured.