Life's Little Hiccups
Life doesn't always go according to plan, and often this is due to things out of our control. These painful little hiccups mess with our plans, our hopes, dreams and emotions. Recently, my family and I experienced one of these little hiccups.
It was Thursday, September 26, 2024; one day before my husbands birthday. We should have been preparing to celebrate another year of his life, love, accomplishments, and the mere joy of having another year together. Life had other plans for us. It was mid-morning and we were still debating whether to stay or evacuate in the possible wake of Helene. The path, looking as if it were going to turn South of Pinellas County convinced us we were safe to stay. It wouldn't be long till we regretted that decision.
Around 11:10 p.m. Hurricane Helene came ashore near Florida's Big Bend on the Gulf Coast. What came behind it for the coast was a "hundred year" storm surge. The surge washed ashore along Pinellas County from both the Gulf of Mexico and Tampa Bay, flooding streets and homes throughout the county. My home being one of those affected.
In my neighborhood of 600 homes, 5o0 flooded making for a cold, long night. The one story homes lost everything with the waters being well over 4 foot into the dwellings. The luckier of our neighbors in 2+ story homes were left with only the loss of their bottom story. We have a meager two story home in which the bottom floor was the garage and my home office. The top floor is our main living space, blessing us with being able to save half our home.
It's funny when these little hiccups are happening, we are so in the moment we don't think, it is just a constant action or reaction moment. One moment we were sitting watching the waters timing the rise, the next you are in ankle deep waters trying to move any electric batteries, a generator, anything that's a hazard. You do not have a moment to think about what you want to save, it's more what won't cause more damage. Before you know it the waters are chest deep (I am a tall 5 foot women), and you are making a swim to the boat to anchor it. It's been swaying for what seems like forever threatening to hit a house. Your options, let it or stop it. So you and your family swim and anchor it, putting power poles down in your neighbors grass. It was a long frightful night I hope never to repeat.
Community Strong
The next couple of days consisted of cleaning up and saving as much as we could. Yielding shop vac's, gloves and masks we waded into sewage filled waters, trash filled garages and tore out moldy walls and tiles. The blessing in destruction is finding the strength in numbers.
We are lucky to live in a community of strong, capable and resilient people we now call family. In a time of destruction those who could help tore through the mess to clean, those who knew how to organize had food and professional services arranged for all, and those who had the resources prepared drinks and supplies to deliver to those in need. We shared generators, dolly's and tools. The magic, no one asked for help, no one sought it out, we just took action truly uniting in a time of need.
Taking Time
After so many of our friends and family were impacted with Hurricane Helene and then Hurricane Milton, emotions were definitely high. Our town was devastated like so many others, and the insurances were denying claims or coming in just under deductibles. Then we hear about FEMA being out of money, advertised on the top of their own webpages. It was just a hard time, with echoing emotions. It is so important to realize when things are hard and while we must be resilient and push through, we must give our emotions a name. Recognizing your emotions and taking a step back and doing things that are normal and stress releasers is important. We made sure to take a break from time to time and attempt to do something normal as a family.
Looking for the light
Sometimes when we want to turn our frown upside down we have to look at the light of the situation. It can be a difficult task, but fun if you can commit. Though our plans may have be hindered by hurricanes our future will be brighter then ever. Illuminated with the possibilities we sat down and started discussing the future of our home.
For my husband this meant more durable building, and a new garage and tools. For me a larger office and studio! While we have big plans, they will be slow. With holidays, no insurance or assistance we will be budgeting our rebuild. Slowly completing one piece of the puzzle as budget and time allows. For now we just keep looking to the future and concentrating on one project at a time.
Building Something
Before we can build for the future we have to face our past. For us this meant tearing down the original office/studio wall. While this process was very difficult both physically and emotionally, we held our heads high remembering our plans for the future.
As we tore apart the walls we began to understand the amount of water that had intruded on our home, and the impact it had. Floors, paint, walls; everything had to be torn our to create the necessary blank slate we call our future.
The dark side
Our first project was the most disgusting and scary, we had to venture into the upside-down. Opening walls, exposing insulation and finding black mold. This was the dark side of owning a home in Florida. With left over COVID masks and gloves we dug in and got dirty, preparing for the light.
Shimmers of hope
Once the walls were down, insulation removed and foundation was thoroughly bleached (five times) we were ready to begin project build back better. With a clean foundation our future was beginning to be our present. Like a little shimmer of hope studs went up, insulation was inserted and walls were sealed.
While little green fish still swam on an old garage reminding us of where we came from, we finally felt an end to the destruction. Leaving room for hope and paint...furniture, and eventually equipment.
