We are still in the recovery phase of Irene. I know most of the country has moved on. I was lucky. These poor folks on the Outer Banks were not.
Terry and I took a weekend trip last fall over to Ocracoke and traveled up the highway to Cape Hatteras and on to Rodanthe. If any of my fellow reader have read Nights in Rodanthe by Nichols Sparks, you will know what a romantic feel that movie gave the area. It happened to be one of his I had read. I learned when I arrived in North Carolina that he lives in New Bern, about 30 minutes west of me and is required reading in this area. So we traveled that road looking for "the house" only to learn that it was saved demolition due to it's unstable condition. It was moved to an "undisclosed" area.
You may recognize it.
When I saw the movie, I knew this was not a good idea. An anonymous buyer saved it.
When I started this post, I hadn't even thought of that house. I think I needed the good news to share first, because this is that road now.
There are 5 breaches in Highway 12 along the banks. These is from photoblog.msnbc.msn.
Supplies have been ferried out to the residents that stayed. It cannot even begin to imagine how long it will take to get them connected again.
That shows how tenuous those homes are. It takes a strong constitution to remain. I'm glad we went when we did because no one is traveling there any time soon.