GOING NORTH

This morning we got up early and after breakfast rode our bikes to the re-opened drugstore , in search of a newspaper, not available for 2 weeks - but still not - yet.

On the way home we stopped at the fire house to see what was going on. Since the storm it has become the center of activity.

We cannot give enough credit and thanks to all the people like Barbara who have worked untiringly preparing 3 meals a day to feed all of the linemen and workers who have come from other states to help restore services to our battered island.

They have collected donations of clothing and food to give free to those who needed it.

The tables at this time are bursting with offerings.

Back on our beach, it was low tide and for the first time in many years we could see the jetty - and a newly formed, and completely exposed bar beyond. Now we knew where most of our dune sand had gone.

We got in Chuck's truck and headed north to hard hit Harvey Cedars to check on a friend who lived there that I was sure had now returned. He had, and he, children and grandchildren were busy digging 5 or more feet of sand out of his lower level, which had once housed a very well equipped work shop. The very extensive dunes from the replenishment 2 years before had been relocated to the center of the island by the wind and waves.

The house on the ocean of John's street had lost a lot as the ocean came out through the garage doors.

The work there to the beach and dunes was ongoing as tractors pushed sand up from the beach,

Pushing it into high piles.

Almost every street in this area showed the amount of work yet needing to be done,

What had been done,

and what still lay ahead.

The task seemed almost insurmountable and the heartbreak for the home owners endless.