Hurricane Irene

Photo by Nicole Parotti

 Many of you know that we were off the island most of the month of August. We are finally starting to get caught up on things on this end (mostly blogs and computer work, because kayaking and sailing is always slow in the summer).

Photo by Nicole Parotti

 Hurricane Irene gave our little island quite the scare. It probably made us more nervous due to the fact that we were away and having to get our friends to help us get all our kitties and gear ready for the storm and we just couldn't really tell what was going on. I'll probably have more sympathy now for my family in the event another storm comes through and we are on the island and not with them.

Photo by Nicole Parotti

 This photo above of the boat tipping makes me so thankful. Our boat was out of the water and just to the left of the edge of this photo (on the other side of the bulldozer). I'm telling you folks... prayer works. Had that boat gone all the way over.... Thank you Lord!

Photo by Nicole Parotti

 This is some roof damage on the stage in Regatta Park in town.

Photo by Nicole Parotti

The photo above was taken on the beach we walk to from our house, Hoopers Bay.  

 We arrived back home about a week after the storm passed, and luckily our island fared pretty well...considering. We were very lucky to have mainly debris damage as you can see above (after it has been placed in neat piles anyway). Our biggest expense with the storm was taking our boat out of the water. We don't have a trailer for it right now so we had to take it out by the lift and store it at the marina $$$ :(

 Our biggest loss from the storm had to be our fridge and freezerS full of food. We had eaten most of the stuff in our fridge before our trip since we were heading out for a few weeks, but our deep freezer was FULL of fish and crawfish and meat that my family always brings down from the states when they come--you see Dallas above pouring the remains to the turtles and fish. VERY depressing throwing out all that food. The power was out for about 4-5 days though, and it was just too risky to keep any of it.

 These final two shots of images from our beach, Hooper's Bay. You can see how the tide line has been pushed back a few feet. The dock below doesn't reach the sand anymore. There is still a lot of branches and debris in the water at the beach and in the harbor. Hopefully by time everyone is coming back down here for the season they will be more back to normal.

 

A friend asked us the other day how all the reefs and cays weathered the storm, and I'm anxious to find out for myself. We haven't had the chance to go explore up in the cays yet and see how things are looking. Overall, I'd say we all got really lucky. Some of the other islands in the Bahamas did not come out of the storm as well. Please pray for those islands and if you feel led to assist in the recovery, I'm sure it would be appreciated. 

Thanks for your loyalty to our little company and blog... I promise to get back in the swing of things soon. I have a new series that I plan on starting on here! God Bless :)