After the storm was over and was heading to the north, we all came out of our homes to view the scene left behind. There was, of course, the ravages to the trees with several large pine trees lying across the street I live on. Some of the neighbors who had chain saws got busy cutting them into sections that could be moved out of the street using several of their trucks. My own yard was a mess with branches covering most of it. But, how thankful I was that I had hired a tree man come out less than a month before and trim back a lot of the trees in my yard. It wasn't cheap, but gosh, it was after the storm passed and there was no whole trees down in the yard, just a lot of branches. I tried clearing some of them myself and had two fair-sized piles, but by then my bad knees refused further abuse and I called a tree removal company to finish the job for me. The next morning as I was having my cup of coffee, I heard a noise outside and saw my neighbors outside dragging limbs to the curb. I went outside and thanked them and told them I had called a tree clean-up company to remove the mess. They laughed and told me to "save my money". Love their hearts, they cleaned and raked and soon my yard was back to normal. I was deeply touched, deeply touched by their kindness, but not that surprised, because the people of our wonderful State know that we have hurricanes, and sometimes they are going to hit our neighborhoods. So, when they do, we all help our neighbors when it happens. I love my State and although we have people here from everywhere, when disaster happens, we stand together in rising from the debris and chaos of these storms to claim our neighborhoods again so that our lives will get back to normal. The parts of our State that was hit the hardest will rise again, it will take time, but it will happen. This is not the first time our people have faced disaster. These are the wonderful people who crawled out of the debris of Hurricane Andrew and rose again. They will do it again!
That is so sweet… there are always some bad apples among the crowd but for the most part there are still alot of really good caring people. So happy for you that your neighbors are some of those wonderful people.
I remember after Ivan, I helped neighbors clean up debris, got some volunteer crews from an out of town church out to help an elderly lady. they did a great job for her. The volunteers sawed some of the bigger limbs up for me, but the bulk of the work, tearing down the desroyed sheds and porches, cleaning the debris in the yard etc... I had to do alone, with no proper tools even.
I was grateful for the sawing of the bigger limbs. They were giving away small chainsaws, but decided I couldn't have one, because... I was a woman and might hurt myself. To this day I laugh about that.
All the hurricanes since, there's been no help, no volunteers, nothing... There's still half a huge oak lying across the corner of yard and fence from Sally. Someone else owns that part of the yard, and they don't even come and check it or do any work on it. I mow what I can. clear what I can.
I'm a renter and actually shouldn't have to do any of what I've had to do,not alone, but, here we are.
Juanita you have a good neighborhood with helpful neighbors. I'm so thankful yo uhave that! There's no way You can do it with your back and knees giving you so much intense pain.
I know neighborhoods like that. They're wonderful. My neighborhood, it seems like everyone is mortal enemies or something. I've tried over the 30 plus years I've lived here, to get people closer. But, it's just a different kind of neighborhood. Ah well!
Every house I passed had a huge pile of debris at their curb. Not one house didn't have a pile! I also noticed all the retention ponds had water levels right to the top. We do have a lot of our rivers overflowing as the land drains. I am just so deeply thankful that it wasn't worse, but who knows, hurricane season is not over! I shall still be thankful we were spared this one.