STORM STORIES, AND PHOTOS
this is just the beginning of the photos
About 10x worse in real life.
Smell, sludge on the floor, heat etc. 

This story is being told with Facebook Posts 

 1.   This post did not fare well. 14 hours later all will look different.

2.  Early in the evening water
​is already in shop.

To see this in film just go to our
​facebook page until I figure out how to 
download this another way

3. Later in the Evening, I'm in disbelieve watching this on facebook

4.  Day after Hurrican no one was allowed on the Beach. A friend of a friend who had access sent a video of the damage which I shared to facebook being one of the first businesses to see what the storm had done to mine. I was shocked and cried. Later, I thought I was prepared to see it in real life but....... 

5. PART A
​The Day we went to the shop for the first time. I was numb and felt nothing. I was amazed at the randomness of the damage, and found some of it weirdly amusing. My daughter made a tape. It was overwhelming for her. (you'll hear some bad language.)  facebook video  Click on pictures for more. 

5. PART B
FACEBOOK POST ABOUT THE RANDOMNESS OF THE DAMAGE
The paper signs stayed completely dry.

A glass bowl of water was found unharmed with sea water still in it.

The hand painted sunglasses were items I had on consignment. Two huge Jewelry cases had to go around that jewelry case and somehow did without knocking the one with the sunglasses down. The display was untouched. The lady who makes those sunglasses had lots of damage to her house. I am happy I can still compensate her for the glasses she works so hard on.

Mannequins were either completely destroyed or stood exactly where I had left them.
All the good mannequins are gone.

There were other displays around the shop perfectly intact while the two jewelry cases mentioned before were completely destroyed.

My laptop was in the shop with all my information and my fear all night was losing it. The water level remained about a 1/4 th of an inch from where it was sitting.

All my paperwork, checks receipts were in the office which was waist deep in debris. All of which was destroyed. 

​6. Was Salvage Day.

The to do list was insane:
     
- Order a U haul
- Order a pod which would not be coming for several days
 - Get help from a wonderful friend who is also in the apparel business.
 - assess what items did not get touched by the surge of water and which items could
 still be salvaged. 
- Pick up a volunteer who quickly took all the plastic covers off of our new inventory to keep them from getting damp.
 - Get racks outside and start hanging up the untouched clothes and separate them from the clothes
  that would need to be washed and disinfected. 
- While hanging out side in the hot sun many of the clothes were getting dry
- Find two strong young men (My daughter's friends) to lift the racks unto the U Haul
  and deliver them to my house where the racks and clothes were put in the yard to farther dry.
- Go get tarps to protect the clothes from the rain. Tarps were very difficult to find. We got the last two      from Home Depot!
-  The tarps came a bit late. It was dark by now and it started to rain, in fact it poured. 
- We rushed to put the tarps over the exposed clothing and pulled as much of the dried clothing 
- inside.
 - There are no pictures of this day we were too busy but I did learn "Ethyl" brand is GREAT!
     

7.   Monday came and went with sorting inventory at home and in my back yard. After the clothes were sorted, we brought them inside the house on racks. The pod wasn't going to arrive until Thursday and in the evenings, there was always a bit of rain.
Tuesday I think, I began working on website:  informing customers and posting on Facebook for volunteers. My daughter posted for help. Had no idea what day it was and found it strange that off the barrier Island everything seemed normal.
​
Continued to post on Facebook and worked on my website to try to get some sales. This is the tough part because most of my customers have lost properties to this storm as well and are also not "online shoppers".  

Some of the Facebook posts trying to find some humor in all of this and making pleas for help.

My Daughter's Post  

PTA Moms  (I was in the PTA 20 years ago) showed up to help because another PTA mom who was dealing with the damage at her house reached out to them.
They showed up at the house and volunteered to help me wash and sanitize salvageable items.
​I was so grateful.

7. PART B
Like all the days after we were allowed back on the beach, I woke up early.
(Couldn't Sleep), pulled the tarps off of the clothes still on racks outside. Spread them out to once again dry and continued to sort and pull dry inventory inside and wash them.
Finally, the pod came. But most of the clothes were already inside the house. I spent much of that evening boxing up clean clothes and marking the boxes by how the clothes inside were affected by the storm and in all of this continued to throw clothing away that were rained on; in our rush to save the clothing, were overlooked and should have been discarded before they were delivered to the house. 
I have been told many times I have to empty the shop out completely and cut the drywall but for that we need volunteers. The store is 3000 square feet with lots of wall surface. 

I received several offers of help but in my mind, I need a large crew to come all at once. I reached out to some organizations to help me coordinate but unfortunately it was for residential only. 
I get that. People are without homes; I had one with power and was grateful for that. 
Finding volunteers was overwhelming by this time and I still had racks and displays to salvage. 

The next day with all the help being offered and I am now at a loss with clothing still outside in my yard and too overwhelmed to think:
All of sudden....  It hit me
Everything is gone and this is really happening.
​
I had to pause and posted the following:

8.  Then came Sally and Ashley....

8.   HOPE

I have never met Sally and Ashley in my life. These ladies were delivering supplies to Madeira Beach from their home in Coco Beach. They saw my daughter's face book plea for help. I had them come to the house to finish up the last bit or sorting salvaged inventory.  We finished up about 4:00 in the afternoon and the ladies wanted to do more and asked me if anyone else could use help. I told them my neighbor the Dive Shop could probably use their help. I called my neighbor and at first, he was hesitant, but I told him he has never met "ladies" like these. He needed my key for insurance adjuster and said it was fine. Before the Sally and Ashley left, I asked if they'd pick up a rack for me. They said yes. 
I got a call from Sally about 10 minutes later and she said told me she and Ashley were planning on cleaning out the entire shop. I was so tired and could not imagine the two ladies pictured above could possibly do much.
I underestimated them for sure. They took out all the clothes, put them outside in a pile. There wasn't much to save. 
The facebook link has the video of them discussing how they were going to tackle the job.
I cannot express my gratitude for these STRONG WOMEN.

Slide show

8. B The destroyed inventory lying on the floor, too wet on racks were taken from the shop and tossed outside.  Done by Sally and Ashley who drove all the way from the other coast to help a stranger. 

9. New inspiration

I felt the need to give back to the community the way Sally and Ashley did. I got up early in the morning and gathered all the beach towels that survived the storm and washed them. They were to be donated to Madeira Beach City Hall. I did not really have other useful items to offer.

Went to shop and was overwhelmed by what had been accomplished. My daughter and I took pictures, called Sally and Ashley to thank them through the tears of gratitude, gathered up more items to salvage since it was now easier to see and went home to continue washing, sorting and posting.
​I was ready to go for round two in the cleaning up of the shop.

I lost my personal cell phone that day so my Facebook posts were the following: 

10. My Volunteers
A very kind lady named Heidi responded to my outcry for help and had gathered several ladies together to help.
Knowing the next day, I was going to get volunteers I planned the day and the tasks that needed to be done. Heidi went above and beyond to ask what I needed in supplies. We coordinated over the phone and I got supplies ready at home. I tried to get a U Haul but they were not available. I decided in the evening to just "wing it" with the station wagon and a SUV belongint to my boyfriend. (Who despite health problems has done everything he could to help).
I asked my daughter to coordinate the efforts at the shop while I ran the salvaged racks and other items back to the house.
When we arrived at the shop in the morning, Karin was waiting for us, then to my pleasant surprise a childhood friend named Mark showed up. He saw I needed help. Next Heidi and her group arrived and in no time, they cleared out more of the racks than I ever could have imagined. It went so quickly. 
Karin even rescued a glass display which needed to be pulled apart and had been put together by my late mother years ago. I was overwhelmed by her efforts. 
Mark had an SUV; so, he, I and my partner ran the now rusty racks home and placed them in the back yard to be cleaned.  Many had to be disassembled in order to fit. 
In the meantime, the ladies, along with my daughter salvaged more items from the storage room and threw more destroyed inventory on the pile outside. 
By 1:00 it started to rain and the ladies had to get home to their families. A new storm was brewing and to my surprise it was Sunday. These ladies helped me on a Sunday! 
I could never have imagined how much could get done when a large group gets together.
I left the last load of racks in my station wagon. The yard was full enough. 
After the ladies left we tarped the racks in the yard and put a few of them in an old camper we have on the side of the house.
That evening, I posted the Thank Yous on Facebook and continued to add more items to sell on my website. 
A new storm named Milton is likely to come.
​

11. The days before Milton
The next three days are a blur. A new storm is coming. All I know is that the racks outside are potential projectiles and they had to be put in the pod. But nothing rusty or wet is allowed in there.

Supplies had to be gathered, water bottles had to be frozen to preserve our food in case power went out, plans had to be made for the upcoming storm and all the while clothes still needed washing, and the racks needed to be de-rusted. I was told the store windows needed plywood which we had always stored in our shed along with the plywood for the Dive Shop next door. 

Thankfully, Will the owner of the Dive Shop made several trips to the house to pick up the plywood and install them for me. 
I worked from morning until night cleaning racks, loading up boxes of salvaged inventory and filling up the pod, camper and shed with potential projectiles. Still hadn't emptied the station wagon. 
In the back of our house was still a large fallen branch from Hurricane Debby. Tree man came by to evaluate it and show me how to secure it since he was busy helping other clients with potentially more dangerous situations. (Trees above houses) 
All I have from those three days are a few pictures.
 I

Storm II

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