Hurricane Michael - Updated

William Finck

Melissa and I are fine, but all communications are still difficult. It may take weeks to return to normal operations. Watch here for further announcements.

On Wednesday afternoon I was assessing the damage to our roof, standing in the far back room of the house and looking at the hole caused by the top of one pine tree, when the second one crashed right over my head, creating several more holes. Before the storm was over, two more entire trees would crash down atop the bedroom formerly occupied by my mother, which we had been using as a guest room. Thankfully it was empty.

Three other large pine trees crashed down in our front yard. I had already considered the possibilities, and after the storm started I moved our vehicles out of the range of any trees, so they are undamaged.

Rain pouring in through holes in the roof, we spent a couple of hours moving books to a dry part of the house. None of our library was lost, but I do have some loss of Christogenea book inventory which is not yet fully assessed. There will be no Christogenea.com book shipments until I can evaluate the remaining inventory.

Thursday we drove to Dothan, bought another generator and a supply of non-perishable food, extra gas cans, paper plates and tin foil cooking pans.

Friday morning our friend Martin, a Christogenea Forum member, showed up with generators and other supplies and tools, and together we cut away the trees in the front yard, to open up access to the house and have some space for parking. Friday night another friend from the League of the South, Kevin, showed up with a ton of supplies, 20 gallons of gas, etc... and most importantly, two 20x40 foot tarps with tools and supplies to nail them down.

Saturday we cut all the trees from the roof of the house. 2 1/2 huge pines. The first half tree to hit the roof had rolled off the back of the house during the second half of the storm, when the winds were reversed.

Sunday we made a makeshift roof from tin and wooden 2x4's that were blown into my yard from the neighbor's shed, which is serving to support the tarps over the destroyed corner of the house. Then we tarped the roof. On Monday I better secured the tarps, and expect them to withstand any normal rainfall over the coming weeks.

Today, Tuesday, I will also hope to remove a few more trees from the yard. It is also time to start dealing with insurance agencies, since Melissa and I are now staying in a place where we have Internet service. There is still no normal phone service in Bay County.

Praise Christ!