MacLaren1
Gold Member
- Joined
- May 15, 2014
- Messages
- 4,655
Some of yall know that my family were devastated by Hurricane Helene.
Friday, September 27 is a day that none us here in the Southern Appalachian- Blue Ridge Mountains will never forget.
Helene took all of our vehicles, outbuildings and damn very nearly our house.
At first, we thought our house would be a total loss. I gotta tell ya, you don't know hopeless until you know that there's not a damn thing you can do to protect your family - much less keep it together.
I don't have time to do the story justice - not even close - so I'll just give the super condensed version.
We did have to run for our lives and a couple times I was worried we wouldn't make it - but, we did. We made it to dry land.
The flood peaked at 1 or 130 best I can remember and we were back down at the house at 3:20 pm - it's absolutely astonishing at how fast the water leaves.
We had to stay the night in that house as absolutely NOTHING was going after that for the rest of the day and night anyways- that was awful having to sleep there - i cannot tell you how awful that was.
The next couple of days we spent at my little brothers house in Tennessee-
The next day saw us all get separated
My wife had to return to work- (super condensed version) so, her lifelong friend - actually i would call her, her sister gave her - her own brand new car to drive as long as she needed to and also gave her a room at her house.
At that point, we also decided to send our daughter to my nieces place in Bluff City, Tennessee- Bluff City and Bristol were untouched by this mess - and it's only 40 minutes away. And mainly because my daughter was traumatized from this crap - that's where she takes her horse riding lessons and she would be able to ride or interact with the horses daily if she wanted to - that was a real blessing - but, still....
I remained at my brother's house for the time being. (Again, super condensed version)
At this time, I was at my lowest - the worst thing is to have your family separated from you. A very good friend of mine - one of the rare ones that absolutely doesn't hesitate to help and in the biggest way that they can, told me that he can never sleep unless everyone is at home and safe- truer words have never been spoken....
As I said before, this was the absolute lowest point for me - i won't go into further details but, all I can say is that family- immediate family can hurt ya the worst - or let you down the worst
Something like this "Geological Event" will absolutely bring out the best & worst in people.... it sure did here.
And I was devastated.....really scared and was ready to some really crazy stuff to provide .... yall know what I'm talkin about
And at this time it was just the wild west out here - everything looked like a war zone
My niece is an RN at Mountain Home VA
She said they had many war veterans suffering severe ptsd from this- it looked worse than any war zone that they had seen she told me
Lemme tell, it was BAD. And, it still is.
But, not no time at all, a couple days then did things start to really turn around for us.
Thanks to my wife's best friend and my niece we were able to all stay together at my nieces place on the weekends! We were finally all back together..... at least for the weekend.
So, not long after that, while back home searching for my truck in the gorge (high powered rifle scope) my cousin came by (super condensed version) let me know that a very wealthy man that had several nice homes in a private gated community not 2 minutes from my house (Eagles Nest) wanted to lend out one of his rental homes to a displaced family- & what's pretty unique about this is that a few years ago, my wife and daughter along with her best way friends - and their kids were able to stay a weekend at Eagles Nest in a multi million dollar home
Lol, my daughter since then (she was about 9 or 10 at that time) said she wanted to live in Eagles Nest - and honestly she even told that not two weeks before Helene hit.
She was like " dad, do you think we could sell our house and buy one on Eagles Nest?"
And she was dead serious lol
So now, we're all living on Eagles Nest- all together again -
This went on for about a month
So when the time came to leave Eagles Nest we then all moved in with my wife's best friend- they had plenty of.room as their kids had already flown the coop
Going back now to about when things started to turn for us - my wife was turning into our driveway when she met a lady in a 4-Runner just sitting there - (my wife was on her way back here to help with clean up debris removal) my wife asked the lady if she was alright and if there was anything she could do to help her.
The lady looked at her and said " I'll be honest with you, I have been praying to The Good Lord, where I really needed to be & here is where I wound up" - she then asked " I have a 20 person construction team ready to go- do you need any help"........
(Super Condensed Version!)
Turns out that she and her husband owned a Custom Home business -
They did the following:
Repaied both sides of our house that was ripped on both sides of the foundations - (thank God these were not weight bearing sides!!) - they also demoed the house, tore out all flooring, cut the sheetrock out 4 feet and down - took out all cabinets, sinks, counter tops, appliances!, tore out the back deck, removed all wet insulation and crap under the house, they did it all....
THEN.......THEN.....
They replaced EVERYTHING (to include even a new HVAC System- everything : flooring, drywall, cabinets, counter tops, vanities, kitchen sink, repaired the outside of the house - foundation, under the house with new insulation, plumbing, new water heater, new pressure tank, brand new cabinets, brand new appliances!, just everything!
......all free of charge......
We have been INCREDIBLY BLESSED
And, I thank my Lord & Savior Jesus Christ everyday for his incredible blessings
I also thank Amy & Sean and her team for what they did - of course, they say all thanks go to The Good Lord and rightfully so.
And I also thank everyone single day the many Good people that helped us along the way - these people didn't hesitate-
They know who they are .....
I'll also say that there wasn't a day i was without my Busse Combat Trustee Warden & furthermore that INFI is truly INCREDIBLE steel.... NEVER DOUBT IT!!!!
Here are just a few pics
Please overlook my spelling and grammar
The battle still rages on around here - there's still so much to be done- i still have no time for anything but work- I now wanna start helping other people as much as I can!
If I've learned anything from this mess, it's to help each other and more than that, more than anything- love one another - do that and the rest will will take care of itself so to speak
Note: the 4th pic is my brother's '06 Tacoma
And the pics of the water was not near as bad as it was gonna get- i just couldn't stomach it anymore - could watch it anymore much less take more pics - it was sickening
Friday, September 27 is a day that none us here in the Southern Appalachian- Blue Ridge Mountains will never forget.
Helene took all of our vehicles, outbuildings and damn very nearly our house.
At first, we thought our house would be a total loss. I gotta tell ya, you don't know hopeless until you know that there's not a damn thing you can do to protect your family - much less keep it together.
I don't have time to do the story justice - not even close - so I'll just give the super condensed version.
We did have to run for our lives and a couple times I was worried we wouldn't make it - but, we did. We made it to dry land.
The flood peaked at 1 or 130 best I can remember and we were back down at the house at 3:20 pm - it's absolutely astonishing at how fast the water leaves.
We had to stay the night in that house as absolutely NOTHING was going after that for the rest of the day and night anyways- that was awful having to sleep there - i cannot tell you how awful that was.
The next couple of days we spent at my little brothers house in Tennessee-
The next day saw us all get separated
My wife had to return to work- (super condensed version) so, her lifelong friend - actually i would call her, her sister gave her - her own brand new car to drive as long as she needed to and also gave her a room at her house.
At that point, we also decided to send our daughter to my nieces place in Bluff City, Tennessee- Bluff City and Bristol were untouched by this mess - and it's only 40 minutes away. And mainly because my daughter was traumatized from this crap - that's where she takes her horse riding lessons and she would be able to ride or interact with the horses daily if she wanted to - that was a real blessing - but, still....
I remained at my brother's house for the time being. (Again, super condensed version)
At this time, I was at my lowest - the worst thing is to have your family separated from you. A very good friend of mine - one of the rare ones that absolutely doesn't hesitate to help and in the biggest way that they can, told me that he can never sleep unless everyone is at home and safe- truer words have never been spoken....
As I said before, this was the absolute lowest point for me - i won't go into further details but, all I can say is that family- immediate family can hurt ya the worst - or let you down the worst
Something like this "Geological Event" will absolutely bring out the best & worst in people.... it sure did here.
And I was devastated.....really scared and was ready to some really crazy stuff to provide .... yall know what I'm talkin about
And at this time it was just the wild west out here - everything looked like a war zone
My niece is an RN at Mountain Home VA
She said they had many war veterans suffering severe ptsd from this- it looked worse than any war zone that they had seen she told me
Lemme tell, it was BAD. And, it still is.
But, not no time at all, a couple days then did things start to really turn around for us.
Thanks to my wife's best friend and my niece we were able to all stay together at my nieces place on the weekends! We were finally all back together..... at least for the weekend.
So, not long after that, while back home searching for my truck in the gorge (high powered rifle scope) my cousin came by (super condensed version) let me know that a very wealthy man that had several nice homes in a private gated community not 2 minutes from my house (Eagles Nest) wanted to lend out one of his rental homes to a displaced family- & what's pretty unique about this is that a few years ago, my wife and daughter along with her best way friends - and their kids were able to stay a weekend at Eagles Nest in a multi million dollar home
Lol, my daughter since then (she was about 9 or 10 at that time) said she wanted to live in Eagles Nest - and honestly she even told that not two weeks before Helene hit.
She was like " dad, do you think we could sell our house and buy one on Eagles Nest?"
And she was dead serious lol
So now, we're all living on Eagles Nest- all together again -
This went on for about a month
So when the time came to leave Eagles Nest we then all moved in with my wife's best friend- they had plenty of.room as their kids had already flown the coop
Going back now to about when things started to turn for us - my wife was turning into our driveway when she met a lady in a 4-Runner just sitting there - (my wife was on her way back here to help with clean up debris removal) my wife asked the lady if she was alright and if there was anything she could do to help her.
The lady looked at her and said " I'll be honest with you, I have been praying to The Good Lord, where I really needed to be & here is where I wound up" - she then asked " I have a 20 person construction team ready to go- do you need any help"........
(Super Condensed Version!)
Turns out that she and her husband owned a Custom Home business -
They did the following:
Repaied both sides of our house that was ripped on both sides of the foundations - (thank God these were not weight bearing sides!!) - they also demoed the house, tore out all flooring, cut the sheetrock out 4 feet and down - took out all cabinets, sinks, counter tops, appliances!, tore out the back deck, removed all wet insulation and crap under the house, they did it all....
THEN.......THEN.....
They replaced EVERYTHING (to include even a new HVAC System- everything : flooring, drywall, cabinets, counter tops, vanities, kitchen sink, repaired the outside of the house - foundation, under the house with new insulation, plumbing, new water heater, new pressure tank, brand new cabinets, brand new appliances!, just everything!
......all free of charge......
We have been INCREDIBLY BLESSED
And, I thank my Lord & Savior Jesus Christ everyday for his incredible blessings
I also thank Amy & Sean and her team for what they did - of course, they say all thanks go to The Good Lord and rightfully so.
And I also thank everyone single day the many Good people that helped us along the way - these people didn't hesitate-
They know who they are .....
I'll also say that there wasn't a day i was without my Busse Combat Trustee Warden & furthermore that INFI is truly INCREDIBLE steel.... NEVER DOUBT IT!!!!
Here are just a few pics
Please overlook my spelling and grammar
The battle still rages on around here - there's still so much to be done- i still have no time for anything but work- I now wanna start helping other people as much as I can!
If I've learned anything from this mess, it's to help each other and more than that, more than anything- love one another - do that and the rest will will take care of itself so to speak
Note: the 4th pic is my brother's '06 Tacoma
And the pics of the water was not near as bad as it was gonna get- i just couldn't stomach it anymore - could watch it anymore much less take more pics - it was sickening
