04-SEP-2006
Bigger than we
This is a huge mess; we can't believe he said yes. Must be that his know-how is so much greater, his chainsaw so much larger than ours, and so the job seems smaller.
04-SEP-2006
Done for now
In less than 40 minutes he made small work of a large job. Two cold beers later he was on his way home and promised that after the ground had dried out he'd bring his "skidder" and haul the trees away for us. No money was accepted although it was offered a number of times. He's a Good Samaritan, this Floyd Pitts.
This is why we're here
(Click on the photo and select the "large" or "original" size (which is huge) to take a better look.)
Ernesto tracking
He wasn't supposed to be this strong a storm. That's what everyone thought and so the lack of preparation, and so the major destruction. Having no power during the storm we couldn't watch the news or Weather Channel but after-the-fact we learned from local folks that we experienced 40-45 mph NNE winds with 60-65 mph gusts, and a 5-6 foot storm surge - not as strong as Hurricane Isabel but no wonder the damage with no preparation!
04-SEP-2006
It’s not all about us
It's a small world and we were found by a former resident of Stratford Harbour (now living in Tennessee) Google searching for news on Ernesto and Stratford Harbour. His family weekend home is off the marina at Stratford Harbour and the seawall they built 25 years ago took a major hit, as you can see from this photo (top left).
Other friends from Stratford Harbour had their boat float off their pier and up onto the shore. You have to wait for a nice and high tide - assuming there's no structural damage to the boat - to get it back on the dock!
The two bottom photos were taken as we kayaked up the river to view the damage from a different vantage point. These are the homes I mentioned that are barely 25 feet above the water. The shoreline and bulkhead were torn up, as were boat houses, docks, and piers. Not to mention the boats - many of which were tossed twenty yards plus into lawns.
Beach sights
As promised, a photo of the Sycamore trunk that was on the beach. Actually it's a collage of sights we've seen on our beach and captured on film. Click on the photo and select the "large" or "original" size (which is huge) to take a better look.
Winter project
Sometimes we become all-consumed by what is going on around us. So consumed that we can't see (excuse me) the forest for the trees. Well, we sat back after the storm, decided what needed to be done and in what order, and made a plan so that we were able to see that forest.
Obviously, protecting our property - the shoreline - from further damage was a must. After talking with five contractors we were able to get two quotes and two very rough (!) estimates, neither of which we were willing to take a chance on. The choice was down to two contractors, we decided which one to go with and after a friend with "heavy equipment" cleaned up the debris on the beach (another fire, of course) the rocks (well, huge boulders) for our riprap job started coming in by the truckload, with each load carrying between 15 and 18 tons.
The riprap job was started on February 27, 2007 and we paid for a job well done on March 12. In nine days they laid down two tons of stone per foot on 165 feet of our shoreline and the 200 feet of our neighbor’s shoreline. That’s a lot of rocks.
It's done. It's over. For now.
Time heals memories and landscapes, and shorelines change. Millions of years ago this area was tropical and covered with water. No one but we three (you, Gus, and me) will remember that the Hickory is missing from this picture.