Helene One Year Later

One year ago our lives changed. Our house was substantially damaged by Hurricane Helene. The entire region was damaged beyond imagination. Even now, there are are people struggling, and signs of Helene’s passage everywhere. We’ve been through lots, but when I look at what others have suffered, I feel survivor’s guilt. In many ways, we’ve been lucky.

On that morning we were aware of storm warnings. I knew we would probably have power outages, so the night before I’d charged up flashlights, got batteries for those that didn’t recharge, and had recharged our phone power blocks, etc. I was on my way into the kitchen to turn on our coffee early so that we could put it in a carafe. That way we would have hot coffee if the power went off. Just as I was about to go into the kitchen, I heard a crash. The large tree next to our house had fallen and taken out most of the back of our house, including the kitchen where I was about to walk.

For the past year we’ve been living in a rental, but it finally looks like we will get to move back into our house this month. The owners of our rental have decided to sell, so we have a definite time limit to be out.

I decided to take some photos showing the morning of the storm, and what it looks like today.

After many months of waiting, things are finally moving forward. We’re having our floors redone next week, and the week after we get our kitchen put together. At that point we can start moving back in. There will still be lots to be done even after that, but at least we will be back in our home.

Even after all these challenges I still feel fortunate. Our insurance company, Horace Mann, has been fantastic and has taken great care of us. All of the companies they have engaged have done excellent work. Right now we’re working with Paul Davis Restorations, and apart from some communications issues, they’ve been great.

There are others that aren’t so lucky. Some have lost everything, including loved ones. One family in a damaged house across the lake from us have yet to find a contractor to rebuild their home. They have been bouncing from one AirBnB to another this entire year. Brent, our project director, told us that they were just starting on another Helene restoration that had finally been approved by their insurance, one year later.

Survivor’s guilt, PTSD, and long bouts of depression have marked this year. Our plans have been put on hold many times, and we both have had trouble even doing those things we love. We’re ready to move on.

One of the biggest problems has been knowing where our stuff is. All of my research books and maps are still packed away in boxes in our garage. I haven’t unpacked them, since I didn’t know when they would need to be moved again. I haven’t taken my large Yamaha S90 keyboard out of its case in all this time. We have a storage unit packed with stuff. One of the things we agreed was that if we haven’t need it in this past year, it’s probably time to let it go. I think a big yard sale is in our future.

So, we see light at the end of the tunnel. That is, until I looked at the current tropical weather forecast and saw Imelda heading our way.

We can only hope that she will be kinder than Helene. I don’t know if I could take another year of this. I think we’d probably sell and move out to our Samish Island home.