The last post about the Fraser Forum was interrupted by the arrival of Hurricane Matthew. When Charlie Ryan arrived, he was surprised at the number of people lined up at the Sea Pines Center. On closer inspection, he realized that people were lined up for fuel so that they could leave the island due to a coming hurricane. We had the forum and it was entertaining to the small crowd who braved it and stayed. Charlie moderated Don Peterson, Ed Pinckney, Peter Ovens and David Pearson.
Peter and I stayed in our home on Hilton Head Island for the hurricane. We were visited by tornados during the storm and when our townhouse began to sway from side to side it was terrifying—at least to me it was! Peter was completely calm and entertained as he explained the house was built to do this.
The morning after the storm we ventured outside to survey the damage. It was startling! We could not get out of our community due to the number of large yellow pines blocking our roads.
We had no water or electricity, but we did have food. We began cleaning up our debris and sawing down small trees that had been crushed. After one day friends cut trees down so that we could venture out. We drove through Sea Pines Resort. It was devastating to see this place we had called home for so many years completely changes. The town suggests we lost over 150,000 trees including live oaks and pines. On the way home we noticed people gathering at Publix and discovered that they were open. We celebrated by purchasing a connector for our phones so that we could charge them while driving around. Wonderful to be connected to the outside world. AND the best part was that Publix had free HOT coffee. It was like heaven. We were thankful to have that and the next day we were even happier when we had water and electricity. I love electricity more than I can say.
I will post a version of the Fraser Forum once it is edited. Now, I will post a photo of the aftermath of Matthew and one photo of our cats Rosencrantz and Guildenstern whom we tried to contain with little bars on their kitty door. It did not work. They made a break for it immediately, but we got them back in the room.
