Hurricane
Isabel Update
CapeLookout
National Seashore Report
It
has been a long week here on Core Sound ....
There is much to report. Many thanks to all of
you who have called, emailed, sent messages and prayed.
Every call, every message and every prayer has been
needed and very much welcomed. YOU folks will never
know how much it means to have folks everywhere who
care -- I mean REALLY care about us. Calls have come
to me from California, New York, Maryland, DC, Georgia,
Florida, Germany and all over the state.
Overall, Davis Shore and beyond is a muddy mess with
wet carpets and furniture in piles all over the place
and lots of weary souls trying to do all they can to
save what they have left ... The photos don't tell the
story; you have to see it with your heart.
These are my guesses: Davis - 50% houses flooded,
Stacy - all but 3, Sea Level - at least 75%, Atlantic
- maybe 1/3-1/2; Cedar Island - from what we hear, most
everything and everyone. All 3 churches on Davis were
flooded, both on Stacy and Sea Level and I'm sure the
church on Cedar Island.
Two museum employees have lost their homes. One may
be able to salvage, but it is doubtful; the other's
trailer and her mother's house are total losses. They
all had over a foot of water. They have worked (with
friends and family) tirelessly to salvage/rescue what
they can --- clothes, linens, pots and pans, pictures,
some wooden furniture that can dry, but all appliances,
mattresses, carpets, upholstered furniture is ruined.
They are staying with family and friends until they
can talk to FEMA. We are all doing all we can to help
them. The museum will be gathering any financial donations
anyone wants to make for them and finding ways to help
with their most immediate needs. As employees of the
museum we are committed to helping them through this;
they have both given many, many hours to the museum
for years ... and they need us now and we will do all
we can. (If you want to help, let
me know.)
We also know that many museum volunteers have lost
homes, boats, and more -- the needs here are endless
it seems, and Down East is only part of the picture.
There are many community / church efforts locally and
from across the state coming to help. The Red Cross,
the Salvation Army, the Baptist Men's Recovery team
are all here; others are on the way. (Again, if you
want to help - let
me know.)
 |
| Flood
at Shell Point "after the tide went down some"
photo:James
Gordon Salter |
The museum building
is fine; I worried, especially when I went to check
on it Thursday afternoon and could not get there for
tide. I went back in the middle of the night and there
were docks and pilings in the road but I climbed over
them (with my lantern, 2 am -- Mama would have died
if she had known!) ... just me and the moon and the
wind --- It was pretty spooky but I had to know ...
I hiked down past Calico Jack's (photo below) and LONGED
FOR THE LIGHTHOUSE TO COME AROUND ... (almost ran) into
the parking lots and to the museum doors and unlocked
them --- and the carpets were DRY all the way around
the building!!! That was very good news. We lost shingles
from the tower but that is minor; we could have lost
the tower! Now that the storm is past and the recovery
begins, we know too that the needs of people will take
precedence over the museum's needs and so we worry about
that for the museum's on-going support, but for now
--- our community and our people come first. Tracey,
Jerry Hyatt, Kelly Nelson, Jolene Walker, and George
Dill got the museum open for business on Saturday. We
still have much to clean up on the grounds but that
will get done eventually.
 |
Calico
Jack's missing docks
photo:James
Gordon Salter |
Bob Vogel at the Park
Service has been in constant touch throughout the week.
He has worried long and hard about all of the sacred
places on his watch ... Portsmouth Village is still
standing but has lots of wind and water damage. He says
the church fared better than the other buildings (wonder
why?) and the Life Saving Station probably the worst
(it is closest to the beach); Cape Lookout is safe,
the lighthouse standing strong; the Keeper's Quarters
re-opened Sept. 22; the horses at Shackelford are still
roaming the banks looking healthy and unfaltering; all
docks along Core Banks are gone (or so badly damaged
they will have to be replaced) as is the backroad on
north Core Banks which is now covered with lots of soft
sand. Bob has been working with Cape Hatteras (who REALLY
has some major problems like a new inlet between the
lighthouse and Hatteras Village) to coordinate NPS teams
to come and help with safety, cleanup, restoration,
stabilizing structures, reconstruction and all that
will have to be done over there. I am glad that Bob
is here. He has had a terribly stressful "first
storm" experience because he truly cares and it
shows ---- thank you Bob! We all are very humbled and
thankful that you are here making sure that OUR precious
Banks are taken care of.
Our board members and their
families, as well as museum volunteers and members are
in the midst of the trouble. From Cedar Island to Davis,
they have lost homes, furniture, businesses, workboats
and income. The damage to anything on the shores of
Core Sound is immense. The loss and damage to fish houses,
nets, boats, docks are losses that will take years to
recover, not even to think of the time they have lost,
the shrimp that are now gone and the uncertainty of
the fall fishing season. Their responsibilities in this
crisis are not just for their immediate families but
for their communities and the people who depend on them
for their livelihoods. Some of our most faithful volunteers,
collectors, carvers and supporters are among those whose
lives have been turned upside down because of all this.
Many of them have several in the same families who have
flooded homes and major losses. We worry about them
all. The flooding came in neighborhoods, in places that
had never seen water like this before even in '33. No
one ever imagined ....
We went on Friday and Saturday with gallons of Clorox,
mops, boxes and trash bags. We want so much to help
but there is so little we can do, just pray and give
and be thankful that no one down this way died. We will
continue to give and help as the process of putting
homes and lives back together begins. It will take a
long time. Long after the Red Cross has left and the
donation efforts have subsided, the hurt, disappointment
and discouragement of what has happened this week will
remain. Our friends and families will our love and support
then too. We cannot forget that. And, our heart goes
out to the folks at Carteret Craven EMC and Salter Path
who lost a fellow worker, husband, father and friend.
Their loss is the greatest of all.
As for me and mine, we are just fine. Our losses are
small compared to others. We are just thankful that
it is past and proud that our children (both near and
far) learned so many valuable lessons through the ordeal.
Storms have a way of bringing people closer, giving
all of us an opportunity to worry more about others
than ourselves, of facing the reality that life is a
gift and it can be taken away or changed forever with
the tide and the wind. We are all stronger now -- as
people, as families, and as a community. I suppose it
takes a time like this to slow us down so we can realize
that. Hurricanes ARE good for thinking ... When the
lights go out and the wind blows and all of a sudden,
its ON you ... you think about a lot of things. No amount
of Weather Channel advisories can really prepare you
... the power of it, the uncertainly, the unknowing
...
Overall --- we are
lucky people... not only to have a dry house, electricity
and EMAIL but also to be part of a community that WILL
weather this storm, just like all the others. These
storms are part of who we are and why .... All my life
I have heard about the Storm of 33 and the tide coming
--- and how the tide fell when Barden's Inlet opened
up from the inside and let the water out ....... Now
I understand and appreciate even more the strength of
my ancestors who had no generators or wet-vac's to dry
the floors or weather channel's to warn them or phones
to calm their fears of what was happening with friends
and family across the sound or up the road. THEY were
tough ... we just try.
Many
thanks again for being part of my/our extended family,
for caring about this community of communities we call
a museum, for worrying about the church at Portsmouth
and Cape Lookout Light and those age-old oaks on Harkers
Island ... all these landmarks stand for ... WE all
know they are much more than buildings and trees....
Thank you for being part of Down East no matter where
you live! Like I used to tell David A. (Lawrence) ...
"I kin ye" ... For those of you who have read
The Education of Little Tree you will understand;
for those of you who haven't, you need to read it ...
Here's hoping for a
calmer week ahead .....
Karen Amspacher
