HURRICANE DORIAN - OUR EXPERIENCE

We were a gang of Five - Myself (Sam), Tim, John Stailey and our son’s two friends from theUK - Billy & Archie.(Our son left on the Thursday to go back to Boston as we were worried the storm was goingto Florida at that point and he wouldn’t get back)

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Friday August 30th - Tahiti Sunset

Today was a day of hurricane prepping the house. Clearing the garden of any straycoconuts (lots) and conch shells (lots). We didn’t have the boat as we took that to TheOutboard Shop in Marsh Harbour the day before to secure it on the hard for the storm withJason Lowe. Sad to think that is the last we will probably see of Gypsy - so many happymemories.

It was a beautiful day in Hope Town. Sunny most of the day with flat calm seas and we wentto the Hope Town Harbour Lodge to see TJ and have a swim. Feeling relaxed at this point.

Drinks that evening at The Abaco Inn. A jolly gang of us including EricPatterson, PatrickMaura, OL and Toni Thompson, discussing storm prep and how the storm seemed to havegrown in size but still not worried as we felt comfortable with our planned move to theconcrete bunker that is Coconut Grove tomorrow. In fact there was an air of excitement atthis point and. “We’ve got this attitude”. Not even the locals, experienced in hurricanes andpost-Floyd were expecting what was coming. We were happy with all the work we haddone to secure the house.

Saturday August 31st - Tahiti Sunset to Coconut Grove next door

Up to the Abaco Inn for an early coffee pre-storm. They were already clearing all thefurniture and the swell was picking up on the Atlantic side. Clouds were also forming.

Home to pack our bags for move to Coconut Grove next door. We cooked up food in case ofa power outage and packed coolers with all our food and drinks. Several Gator rides laterwe had all our things up at base camp. Time for a last walk on Tahiti Beach before supper.Little did we know this would be the last time we would see either the house or the beachlooking anything like this. And a final farewell to my little turtle buddy.

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Up to Coconut Grove to meet John there. Delicious dinner and wine and lots of storm chatand online weather monitoring. At this point both the Weather Channel guy Jim Edds andthe storm chaser Josh Morgerman had arrived in Abaco so we started to realise this mightbe more of an event than we had expected. Off to bed with the wind picking up a little but agood night’s sleep had by all after our busy day.

(The large piece of furniture behind Billy in the hat is what fell to the right effectivelyblocking us into the utility room but probably protecting us from flying debris too)

Sunday 1 September - Dorian Day Dawns at Coconut Grove

Windier this morning when we got up around 7.30. The windows in John’s bedroom did nothave shutters as they were hurricane glass so it became our viewing room. By 9.30 thewind was strong and the rain came in heavy bands. We were running on generator power atthis point but the tv was working and the boys actually watched the Grand Prix while Ispent a lot of time pacing and watching the windows flex in the wind. The hurricanewindows started to leak water at the bottom (not a good sign, I remember thinking) and weput towels along the bottom to soak up the water. The wind was incredibly loud. Whistling.

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It was wild out there. We could hardly see out through the bands of rain and wind. Thensuddenly around 11.30am (not completely accurate timings) it went calm. The Eye.

Sunday 1 September - Dorian The Eye

This photo credit unknown but taken locally on island during the eye of Dorian.

It was extraordinary. From the wildest winds I’ve ever seen to sudden calm and brighter.Weirdly we did not look up for the eye as we were so transfixed by the scene in front of us.Horrifying. We went outside to survey the scene. John went down to Bay Windows to checkif Toni and OL were ok. We went out to the front deck of Coconut Grove and could notbelieve our eyes. Through all that wind and rain we had no idea what devastation was goingon around us. You could hear nothing over the wind. One of the Coconut Grove buildingshad lost the viewing deck off the top and we could see the same had happened to ourhouse Tahiti Sunset. In fact we could see our kayak that had been stored under our houseall the way over in Coconut Grove towards the beach. Tip O’Tahiti (the Strube’s lovely houseacross the road facing Tilloo Cut) was completely destroyed. Strangely their generator shedwas still standing but the house was in pieces. There were a lot of trees down but thecoconut palms on Tahiti beach were mostly still there at this point. Large trees had literallysnapped in two. Fencing strewn everywhere.

Sunday September 1st - Dorian The Dirty Side

We went back inside after about an hour as we felt the wind picking up. John was still notback and we were worried about him but he returned shortly after. This is a man who hasbeen through a Cat 5 before in Eleuthera (Andrew) so we knew we were in good hands!Luckily we all made bagels and had a quick bite to eat as the storm restarted, this time withthe wind coming from the opposite direction (the dirty side). The front shuttered row ofwindows in the living area were really rattling and bowing inwards now and it was getting abit scary. However we felt the house had held up for the first part and that we would be ok.

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From this point things happened fast. The noise of the wind was incredibly loud. Thewindows and hurricane shutters were rattling. By some amazing fluke we were all in thecorner of the living/kitchen area near the laundry room when there was an almighty bangand the corner of one of the shutters flew off. In seconds the windows and frames wereshattering and blowing in and we ran into the utility room. Peering out we watched theroof of the main house blow off above us. The noise was incredible. John, raised an eyebrowand said the immortal line “that’s not good”. We managed to laugh at the understatement.It’s hard to explain the next 5.5 hours. Yes hours. 185mph sustained winds, 220mph gusts,20ft storm surge. Equivalent to an EF4 tornado. We were in a small laundry/utility room atthe back of the house. I had eyed up this room earlier when Scott Ferguson of AlburysFerries had messaged me telling me to make sure we had a “safe room”. I had thought thatwas a bit extreme at the time but he was 100% right. We had water and soft drinks in there.There was no roof on this room. Just a wooden ceiling with a square hatch in the middlethat had ripped open when the roof came off. We had a view above of the mayhem. Swirlingdebris, large pieces of wood and metal, air conditioning ducting, you name it. Plus biblicalrain pouring in the hatch. We were soon in a foot or more of water. Archie and John heldthe door shut against the wind which was no mean feat. Billy, Tim and I huddled oppositethem getting soaked to the skin. A large piece of furniture had fallen against the door onthe other side which probably helped us but the door was fragile and slatted and stillneeded a lot of strength to keep it from blowing in. I worried about debris flying through it.We took turns holding the door and all then huddled together to try and get warm. Wewere shivering and teeth chattering - it was very very cold. I think our main fear in thatroom was the ceiling lifting. We watched it for hours bowing upward, threatening to lift.Terrifying. Truly terrifying. But also you are numb with terror. Silent. Praying and hopingyou make it through. In retrospect the one saving grace was most likely we had an air flowthrough the slatted door and up the hatch above releasing the pressure. Tim’s divingwatched beeped several times alerting him he was underwater (most likely the pressuredrop). At one point John recognised I was so cold that he needed to do something. He foundan old wetsuit which I struggled to get over my wet pyjamas and put me in a cupboard to

try and warm up. I remember feeling safe in the cupboard. We had a couple of VHFmessages from Justin and Cheryl Noice while we were in the laundry telling us they weretrapped in the lower level of their house as the top half had blown away. They were dry -ishand safe there and we couldn’t go out to help, too dangerous. And then after 5.5 hours Johnsaid we needed to try and get out of this room. The strongest wind had stopped but therewere still hurricane winds blowing. I didn’t want to leave it. It was our “safe place” but it wasso cold and we were so wet with the rain continuing to pour in. Tim and John opened thedoor and climbed up onto the large console blocking it. It was a scene of devastation.Everything in that living room had blown in pieces against the end we were at. A wholekitchen island, a large glass table, all the furniture, a chimney. There was no way we weregetting out that way. But the only small window was hurricane shuttered. So John(Superman) climbed over all that very dangerous debris to find his lovely Haitian gardenerswho were hunkered down below the house. They got a ladder and opened the shutters. Thewindow was jammed, not good. John managed to find a hacksaw and Tim sawed it so hewas able to get it open. We then had to negotiate getting out and down that ladder in stillhurricane force winds. You find it in you somewhere. The kindness of his gardeners I willnever forget.

The window we climbed out of.

Where to go now? We went to check out the pool room (it was dark now but we had acouple of torches - ironically all our “hurricane kit was in the kitchen or wherever the windblew it). The hurricane sliding doors were shattered but intact (some kind of film holdingthe glass in place). It’s a room full of gym equipment but has a small bathroom and a bed atone end. We dried ourselves off with towels found in a cupboard. Made up a bed for Archieand Billy with all the pool lounger cushions and found a couple of sheets. We had managedto bring from the utility several gallon jugs of water and our coolers with soft drinks and...abottle of wine. We opened that and drank it out of the bottle and all fell into a restless sleep- Tim, John and I on the bed and the boys beside us. The wind was still howling and I keptwaking up terrified it was starting again. I think we all did. We slept in towels.

Monday 2nd September - the day after Dorian

Today the weather was horrendous. Still hurricane winds and torrential rain. We couldhardly get out. John went over with his gardeners to undo hurricane shutters and get Justinand Cheryl Noice out of their home. They had been stuck under what was left of theirhouse all night. They moved down to Bay Windows with Toni and OL who had a lot ofdamage but a dry apartment below and some dry living space/bedroom for themselves andtheir 2 cats. Tim and John did a quick recce and found our passports and wallets scatteredaround the garden. It was a good moment. He went to Toni and OL and came back with abox of Special K Red Berries.

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The collapsed part of the house is where we had been based.

We shared a handful of dry cereal and it tasted so good. We all slept a lot today. Exhaustedand shocked. Little we could do productively outside in the storm. Worked out that wecould use pool water in a fridge door section (makeshift bucket) to flush our loo - the littlethings!Some highlights were when Jamie Williams (HTVFR) appeared to check we were ok. As didDonnie and Trish Elden. Lovely people who came out in horrendous conditions. It rainedand blew heavily for two days post-Dorian.A blur of a day. Not much food to eat - I opened a tin of tuna and an old avocado from ourtree mushed into a section from the fridge door which I made everyone eat. It was all wehad but we needed something. It was disgusting. Cat food comes to mind! Tim refused andate a mushy Ryvita cracker instead... probably a sensible move!

Tuesday September 3rd

We had no communications bar a VHF which did not work yesterday as the aerials hadgone down. Today it worked a bit and we were able to hear some people in HT which wasgreat. We were so worried about how everyone had done on the island and we had no ideabar our small group in Dorros Cove.

We met up with Gina (who works for Richard King) and others to start clearing the localroads of debris so we could get about. Gina was a powerhouse - the boys called her LaraCroft! Very handy with a machete!! She’s amazing.

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In the middle of our clearing of Coconut Grove we saw a man coming up the road. Couldn’tsee who it was at first. And suddenly there was Patrick Maura. He had walked all the waydown to us on the South end through horrendous amounts of debris. He was soaking wetand covered in scratches. It was the most lovely thing to do. We were beyond happy to seehim. Huge hugs, stories of the storm, love that man for coming to check on us.Our Gator which has been stored in Coconut Grove’s garage was fine but we needed to findthe keys. They had been in Tim’s bag in the kitchen. He and John spent a long timesearching through debris and eventually found them. A great moment and it started. Wefinally went to see our house today. The beautiful garden is gone - ironically it had neverlooked so good pre-storm. Completely gone. House still standing with dents and damageand minus top deck and roof so the water has been pouring in. Could not get into it - thesurge pushed a ton of debris (the cottage opposite us - in pieces) against the house and thedoor would not open. Decks damaged, stairs gone. Can’t tell if it’s a write off and start fromscratch or a repair/rebuild right now. It was a sad sight. So much love went into thathouse. We spent 5 years updating it and adding to it. It was a sorry sight. But we are all aliveand that is the main thing. We all felt that.

After clearing locally we went down through Dorros Cove as we were told that the surgehad destroyed Sea Spray and there were boats, an Albury ferry, debris etc. blocking theroute to town. We were literally stuck in the South end. The drive through Dorros Cove wasshocking. Like a tornado had levelled the whole area. Houses on their side, houses tornapart. You could not go down the road past the little fire station but we cleared a back roadto create access. Kenny Maltarp appeared with a digger and did an amazing job withanything that was too large for us to clear. It was very hot but satisfying work although wehad to be very careful of the large nails and glass everywhere. It was a job well done - wehad access for the next day.

We had no clothes at this point as everything was soaked in the storm. John managed tofind semi-dry clothes at Coconut grove in a wardrobe in the damaged part of the house andwe all had a uniform of boxer shorts and black T-shirt’s for a while. It was a relief just tohave something semi-dry to wear. Our suitcases were found eventually in varying locations,but mostly destroyed and soaked. (We left them behind). Everything smelled terrible.

That night was wonderful. Toni and OL had steaks defrosting in their freezer. We used asmall gas bbq and ate steak. It was the best thing I’ve ever eaten. Wine was found and wehad a lovely evening together in torchlight.

Wednesday September 4th

The frustrating thing was no communications. OL had a SAT phone and we were able to getmessages to our families in England yesterday that we were ok. It was a relief. I’m sure itwas awful for them and continued to be until we got home - information out was everchanging and confused. The SAT phone was in constant use and luckily we could charge iton the Gator. OL was working with his family to try and find ways to get us off the island.Seaplane, helicopter, maybe even his big fishing boat which we had heard had possiblymade it through the storm (one of the very few) in town. We had group meetings bothmorning and evening to see where we were with evacuating HT.So today we set off to town in the Gator. It was surreal. No photos can show thedevastation this hurricane created.

Sea Spray was gone. Gone. Our lovely friend Shae’s house, Blue Moon, gone. We got to theAbaco Inn (cottages destroyed, much of the Inn destroyed. Severe damage to the owner’shouse Shangri La) and there was Tom and Ziggy his dog. We found out his other dog hadescaped in the storm and was missing, presumed dead. A low point. (Note - This dog bysome miracle was found hiding under rubble a week after the storm. One of the bestmoments). Tom was a star as he always is. He gave us cold drinks. With ice. My god theytasted good. Eric Patterson appeared. Emotional hugs. More drinks. Then on to town.Shocking drive. You lose your bearings. With no green, no trees, you can see for miles. Youcan see houses you never knew were there. We were so confused and we thought we knowthe island so well. The landscape is completely changed. Town was shocking. Large boats allalong nigh creek were on the road. Cha Boyce’s gorgeous Boat House on its side. In townwe saw Ben Puckett’s large boat on the side of the road. It was carnage. We went up to thefire station and what a sight it was. Stafford Patterson in the communications. Monica Cookbeing just incredible. The best hug I’ve ever had. Jane Patterson was there for more hugs.was a hive of activity. We got our names on the evacuation list. It was so lovely to seepeople we had been so worried about. No deaths on the island. It was a miracle. It reallywas. People’s stories. Incredible. It was good just to be with other people. We had felt so cutoff on the South end. So much love and warmth and humour. Yes, humour got us throughlast week. Endless jokes, banter. Strange now to think of that but I think we would have allbroken down were it not for the endless silly jokes.A hug (so much hugging going on!!) with Cha and Lianna en route was just wonderful. Wehad spent time two days earlier with them having the privilege of helping to check a turtlenest to see they had all got to sea. It was a very special memory. They do so much topreserve the immaculate marine life in Abaco.Then on to Firefly. We had heard on the grapevine they were doing food there. We weremet by Erica Pinder who offered us a shower. I nearly cried. Best shower of my whole life.We all felt human again after that. And no doubt smelt a lot better too! Lorenzo could nothave been kinder. Gave us some wine (delicious) and helped with communication issues andgeneral information as Firefly was another command station. Saw Firefly Milo too whichwas a bonus!Freezer leftovers for the Dorros Cove gang again tonight by torchlight. Toni and OLamazing hosts given the circumstances! More planning for trying to get off island.

Thursday September 5th - last day on island

A walk on Tahiti Beach. The landscape has completely changed. The most noticeable beingso few trees survived. Poignant particularly as John Koerner of Dorros Cove had spenthours and hours in August planting 130-150 baby coconut trees along the beach to recoverit to its pre-Hurricane Floyd glory. Am hopeful that some of the baby trees will survive buttime will tell. There is SO MUCH sand. I worried the sandbank would wash away but it hasin fact almost trebled in size to become a huge beach. You can walk to the rocks separatingthe beach from Tilloo Cut, you can nearly walk to CubbyJack Cay and you can walk toBakers Rock. Conch shells everywhere, a few dead birds but many live ones too. We saw theoyster catchers and a barn owl (very unusual to see at the best of times). Signs of hope. Afrigate bird, herons.We found Johns Albury upside down in the middle of the grove of upended trees. Tied arope to it so no-one else can claim it.

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Much of today was spent trying to dry the few belongings we had found and get ready toevacuate. Washing up was interesting. Bill became strangely attached to his palm leafwashing up brush!

Started the day thinking we might be able to get out of the island by helicopter (kindlyarranged behind the scenes with all the Dorros Cove families working overtime to makethings happen). This did not pan-out as they closed the airspace. A few relief flights weregetting in. The US coastguard flew very low over us at Coconut Grove and circled threetimes. We could see them clearly waving. I have to admit I did cry for the first time. Theywere so close and yet not. But it was comforting to be acknowledged.In to Hope Town again to see how OL’s large boat Adameda had fared. It was an option forus at this point to evacuate on. It was in remarkably good shape having been moored up atTranquil Landing in town. Big Red, OL, Amanda Lightbourn and others got her going. Therewas some damage but minimal. However it was probably not a 100% safe choice as far asevacuating was concerned. We were so so happy for OL and Toni. This boat means so muchto them.

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We found out in the afternoon that a ferry has been chartered (thank you Matt Winslow -really, it was an amazing thing to do) so we needed to pack one bag each (easy as we had solittle). The highlight today was that Billy and Tim found my yellow travel bag - it had myprescription glasses inside that I had been so desperate for. The bag had wrapped itself in abedroom rug and was lodged in a bush so it was incredible to find it - we had been lookingall week. Much not salvageable in it but the glasses and a few toiletries (toothpaste!!) were abig bonus.We all had a delicious bowl of soup in Hope Town provided by the wonderful volunteers atthe Sailing Club soup kitchen. Honestly, the food that was being provided as a hot mealdaily to everyone was a wonderful thing. I know the Mackey sisters and others werecooking up a storm at Firefly and a similar set up was going on in Hope Town. ❤When we returned to Coconut Grove our gorgeous caretaker Rabby appeared. We had seenher and Gary briefly in passing on the roads but she came to see us and it was such a reliefto know she and Gary and her little boy Eli were doing ok. They have lost everything. Theirhouse she made so beautiful and the golf cart business they had worked so hard to buildup. It breaks my heart. They are so hard working. She literally did everything for us to makeTahiti Sunset run. And she did not want to leave the island, her home. I know she is nowsafe with a lovely family in Florida enrolling Eli into school there for the time being. Garyremains on the island helping and anyone who knows him will know that he will bepassionate about assisting in restoring HT.When we had packed our damp belongings we returned for one final Dorros Cove 11 meetup at Bay Windows. Toni found some Whispering Angel rosé - we were like kings that night!Such a treat. We were exhausted and pleased to have a firm plan for the morning. Lots ofhugs and camaraderie. I will never forget the kindness and hospitality in extremely difficultcircumstances shown to us by Toni and OL. They were the glue that held us all togetherand the kindest people you will ever meet.Early night ready for a 6am wake-up to gator down to the Post Office Dock.

Last night in our little haven of the pool room - a place we had all become strangelyattached to. I should point out here that John Stailey was our hero. He looked after usthrough this difficult week with kindness and humour. His dry sense of humour had us infits. He was like a machine, clearing debris, chopping palms with a machete like a 20yr-Old,helping his Haitian gardeners and us with clothing and food finds. Finding me some coffeeon day 3. Procuring a couple of dresses from who-knows-where, giving us advice and jobsand the best hugs. We are indebted to him. Friendships made in this week will last forever.We are completely bonded. I won’t miss the cacophony of snoring by the boys in that roomthough, like a cicada chorus!!

Friday September 6th - leaving the island

We were all up before first light and wandering around the terrace chatting. Getting ourthings together and loading up the Gator. We left everything we could for the lovely Haitiangardeners who had done so much for us.It was a somber journey into down. Sun hadn’t come up and mixed feelings about leaving.We knew we needed to get home and we were most likely a drain to the limited resourceson the island but it was very hard to leave this little community in such devastation. Theyshowed us all nothing but love and kindness when they had lost everything.We arrived in town and Tim took the Gator keys up to the fire station. We decided to leaveit with them to use as it is able to go over the brutal terrain of the island with ease andhopefully will be helpful in the weeks/months ahead.We formed an orderly line. We were a large group of people all leaving behind something orsomeone they loved. Many hugs and Monica and Clay amongst others were keepingeverything calm and collected.

There were three boats (all miraculous survivors of Dorian) lined up to take us out to theferry which was located way out in the Sea of Abaco.We were loaded up in groups on these boats. We went with Andrew Wilhoyte. Sombrejourney out of the harbour and seeing the destruction from the water. The little house onthe island at the mouth of the harbour was completely flat. Lovely Mike Jones’s villas weredestroyed. It was all very very depressing.

We arrived at the Lazy Daisy, a Nassau Fast Ferry and negotiated ladders to get on. We wentto the top and watched for a couple of hours as the boats went back and forth to HopeTown to collect our group of 220 evacuees. Dogs, cats, elderly, infirm, young children - allwere loaded with care and consideration. We were a motley crew.

We had WiFi on the boat for a short period of time but the messages that popped up on ourphones were overwhelming and it wasn’t the time to reply except to organise our Nassaupart and let close family know we were on the boat.We set off and began the slow 6 hour journey to Nassau. The beginning was rough withswell and many felt sea-sick. We went out of the north Man o’War channel and all along theAtlantic side of Elbow Cay and the southern part of Great Abaco. It was a sad sight. Youcould see the devastation from way off shore.As we got into deeper water the ride became smoother. Lots of chatting on the boat aboutsurvival stories. We met up with Brigette and Donnie Carey (we had taken their golf cartunder our house pre-storm and we hope that it may have survived bit is now a convertible)who had had a terrifying experience on Tilloo and had lost everything including Brigette’sbeautiful artwork. Tim chatted to a man called Winston who had been on the North End forthe storm. As his house crumbled he put on a wetsuit, grabbed a boogie board, mask andsnorkel and rode out the storm in his water cistern. I cannot imagine how frightening thatmust have been. We chatted with Rhiannon who was on board with her two young childrenwho we adore. Uprooting these girls after so much sadness already was, I know, reallytough for her and with no idea of what will happen next. Many many families leaving theirwhole lives behind. We are lucky. We have a home to go back to. I cannot comprehend howit must have felt for these lovely people to leave under these circumstances.The journey was long. We were all hungry but they provided water on the boat and OL andToni (mum and dad at all times) provided digestive biscuits! It was a beautiful journey insome ways, the deep blue of the ocean. Flying fish the whole way kept us entertained.We arrived in Nassau at the port - complete chaos. Families reuniting, scared dogs,confused children. Traffic chaos and boiling hot. In the midst of all this appeared OliviaMauara. That tearful hug was everything.We could not find our pre-arranged driver. The police were holding up traffic so we foundsome shade under a flyover and waited. Tony, Richard, Jera, and Gina with the dogs weretrying to find their ride as were Toni, OL and John. Tim went to try and find our driver. Nodriver but he returned with 5 Radlers for us to drink. Could not have been more fantastic atthat moment. Driver eventually found in a stretch mini-bus so we were able to take Toni,OL and John too so they could get to their flight to Charleston. Off we went to a familyfriend of Archie’s mother in Cable Beach to shower and eat before our flight. What a sightwe must have been, arriving at the door of this beautiful apartment, bedraggled, smelly andtired. The family were amazing, sorting us out with a hot shower (wow), delicious food,wine and clothes for the flight. Again, the kindness of strangers is remarkable. All verysurreal to be in such surroundings and we were in a bit of a daze as we went on to Nassauairport to catch the night flight home. Archie’s mother had been dealing with the lovely BArep Brianna behind the scenes. She was truly wonderful and sorted our soggy passport (yeswe managed to find all of them over the 5 days, strewn around Coconut Grove!) check in,set us up in the lounge with more food (we were hungry!) and upgraded us to premiumeconomy on the flight home with extra blankets as we didn’t have anything warm.

Arrival at Heathrow into the welcoming arms of Archie’s mother Lou was the end of a verylong week.

We are now sleeping, eating, donating and following the amazing stories in Hope Town.These are strong people who have lost everything. The Loyalist spirit is embedded in thiscommunity. There is so much love from near and afar I have no doubt we will all rebuildand our ties to the place we call home are embedded for life.

Please if you read this, donate to one of the four I know will go, in full, straight to HopeTown. Every little bit will help this community recover.

Hope Town Volunteer Fire & Rescue:https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=xEDHWKgP4trV0xXlr-CnXnJWdcaRwOQMW0dYp5sOilNziJdnbzkKiB-uswYv8lGMmHgIV0&country.x=US&locale.x=US

https://www.hope4hopetown.com/

https://hopecolling.com/helpforhopetownprimary

https://www.classy.org/campaign/intervol-or-elbow-cay-and-hurricane-dorian/c248086

Amazing things are also happening with Hope Town United spearheaded by Matt Winslowand Brian Malone. Will update on this as it goes forward.

We have so many thank you’s. I will try to list here but I’m sure I will miss some.

The Dorros Cove gang (forever bonded):

My husband Tim for being a complete rock throughout and avoiding my tuna mush!

Archie Cripwell for being an eternally optimistic, can-do, door-holding superman that hewas. And the banter. The banter was good.

Billy Peat for being the other half of the dynamic duo, endlessly helping with hard labour,checking I was ok on a regular basis, toga-wearing dude and again, the banter. Excellent!

John Stailey - you are a remarkable human being. I would ride out any Cat 5 horror withyou. Endlessly calm. Always knowing the right thing to do. Brave. Kind. Resourceful. Theendless casual one-liners that had us belly-laughing. Your kindness in checking in on andhelping others. A star of a man. Not enough words can describe him. We are glued togetherfor life.

OL and Toni Thompson. These amazing people were the heart of our little group. Theywent out of their way to make the remains of their home a safe place. Practical,undefeatable, kind and loving. Delicious meals made from what we could scrabble to find.Underwear procured for those of us who had none (!), a safe haven provided to the Noice’sand their cats, wine, stories of their lovely family. It held us all together. Getting us out ofthere was OL’s mission. I can’t think of a family I would rather be with in a disaster thanthese two. We look forward to spending time with them again under differentcircumstances and are indebted to them.

To the three lovely Haitian men who work for John and helped us a) escape from thelaundry room and b) worked like trojans over the following days to help clear roads, makepathways, with little more than brute strength, a machete and an amazing attitude. Alwayswith a smile.

Richard King and Gina for all their practical help and chats and kindness when they had lostso much.

Justine and Cheryl Noice for sharing some delicious red wine recovered from under theirhouse and some hurricane advice.

Donnie and Trish Eldon for coming to check on us Day 1.

Jamie and Laura Williams for also coming in horrendous weather to see we were ok day 1.

Patrick Maura for the day 2 hugs and for generally being a fantastic human.

Kenny Maltarp for clearing the South End with his digger so we could get out.

Tom and the gang at the Abaco Inn for showing us so much kindness when the inn waspretty much destroyed and his dog at that time was missing. It was a huge source ofcomfort. Thank you also to Dan and Melody Sullivan for the hugs.

Eric Patterson for the hugs and again being a fantastic human. So much love for him.

Daphne Mackey for the love, hugs, food and needless energy cooking at Firefly and bringingfood down to all the workers clearing at the Inn. And for being a gorgeous person. And forthe best laugh of all time, ever.

Lorenzo Barigelli and Erica Pinder and Clint and Sebrina Adderly and all working so hard atFirefly for sweeping us up at Firefly when we could finally get there and providing showers,food and generally making us feel human again. We felt the love. You guys are all amazing.

Rabanette & Gary Richardson for always always looking out for us. You have our hearts andwe will be there for you. And Eli, I love you gorgeous boy. Rabs, the coconuts you gave usthe day before the storm were good in our pool room bunker for a couple of days ❤

Stafford and DebbiePatterson. You are all like family to us and we love you. Stafford you aretruly an amazing man. I don’t know how you were doing it. Running command in HopeTown. Always the voice of calm. The passion you have shared with us about Hope Town andAbaco is embedded in us. We know you will be a huge part of returning the island to itsformer glory and we will be there to help in any way we can. I hope you are getting coldbeers now. A new grandchild is imminent and will hopefully experience a new, stronger,and much loved Hope Town❤

Monica Cook - you are unbelievable. The energy is extraordinary. We have seen it beforewith the Christmas Village but nothing like what you were achieving post Dorian. Aremarkable woman with the best hugs. And jokes. You always get things done. Just whateveryone needed. We love you and your family.

Nurse Glori - what a trooper. Providing medical care and love to everyone. You must havebeen exhausted but you didn’t show it. Sending so much love to you. Everyone loves youand HT are lucky to have you as part of the community.

All the volunteers at the command centre and HTVFR. It is not an understatement to say wewere blown away by what you were all achieving straight after the storm. It was organised,methodical, efficient. Everyone should learn from you and how you operate. You will be thereason HT will ultimately recover. We feel lucky to know you and we are eternally gratefulfor everything you have done for us pre and post storm.

Troy Pritchard. You rock. No words. Just an all time superstar.

The Wilhoyte family and Local Boy (so glad your boat survived) for getting lol of usevacuees onto the ferry as painlessly as possible.

Ronnie Sands for always checking in on us. We love you Ronnie (and the gutter straps held!)and the generator house still stands!

Caroline Key, Ranaldo and the kids for worrying about us and being so happy we were ok.We love you.

Darrell Cole for offering to for tarp our roof. The fact that your new building next toCoconut Grove still stands is testament to your building work.

Pete and Hope Colling for being wonderful people and for your love of Hope Town. Peteyou are doing an incredible job organising and helping with the clearing in such a

passionate way and Hope for your love of everything HT and all you are doing post storm tohelp people, the school etc when you have lost so much yourselves. We will all be backbefore long reunited in our love for the island.

Rhiannon for all the love, laughs and energy. You are the strongest woman I know givensuch adversity in a short time. We love you and miss you.

Scott Ferguson for the pre-storm advice and for caring. Your advice was good.

Tiki Tim, Tiki Mal and Paige McNanie for the weather updates right up untilcommunications went. What a caring group our Tiki family is ❤ united by our love ofAbaco.

Laifette Alcime for putting our shutters up so beautifully that they all held and moving allthe unbelievably heavy furniture with his team the day before the storm. We are so gratefulto you and the men helping you.

Tony and Joey Cabral for being wonderful people and again, the hugs.

Matt Winslow I do not know you but your love of Hope Town shines through and you aredoing amazing things. Practical things. We are all on board with your plan and look forwardto getting involved as and when necessary. We look forward to meeting at some point downthe line. Thank you. Thank you.

I’m sure I have missed people. Brain is still scrambled. But I just want to say that it is hard toexplain to those who don’t know quite how much this place means to us. Our plan was andstill us to spend much more time there in the future. We love our gorgeous house at TahitiBeach with a passion. We put so much love into it these past five years and will recreatethat special place in time.Hope Town is unique. You are welcomed into a community unlike any I have experienced.We have friends for life there. It is our happy place and will continue to be just that. We aredevastated for you all. I know first-hand how much you have lost. But there is so much lovefor this island. So many people want to help. So again, if you can help please donate to oneof the charities listed.

#hopetownstrong#abacostrong

#hopetownunited

Note:

We came home to be greeted by The Mole. Very grounding and of course he is proudlywearing his Hope Town Canvas Bahama collar #bahamaproud

Update pic of the gator being put to good use ❤