Hurricane Irene Visits Vermont

Just thought that we would write and let you know that we are doing fine in Vermont. Hurricane Irene got down-graded to a tropical storm before it hit us, but it still did some damage. I have included a link to some before-and-after pictures of our place.

https://picasaweb.google.com/michaelbarthill/HurricaneIreneVisitsHartfordVermont#

I was on call at the hospital while Monica and the kids were at home. There is a picture of Owen fishing in the White River this time of year to show how low the water usually is. The next picture shows our nice green grass with the water rising about three hours before the police came and knocked on the door and said that they had 5 minutes to get out of the house...then they turned off the power. Some friends were over seeing if there was anything that they could do and helped Monica quickly move the contents from our garage to the living room. Monica was able to grab her freshly made caramel corn and rolls and left our house to stay with our friends the Fords.

The next day we saw the damage.

A great friend from Church was on call with me the night before and had heard that my family had been evacuated and when he got off in the morning, instead of going home to sleep after a long shift, went to his house and got supplies and headed over.

Our Bishop, who also happens to be my boss, paged me in the morning and asked if we needed any help. I indicated that we did and while I was at work trying to wrap things up to come home, people from the ward started showing up to help...27 people from the ward!!! The water level in the garage was about 4 feet. After the water receded there was about 4 inches of mud.

They shoveled out the mud and removed the carpet. When that was done they went to help our neighbors. When I finally got home, our place was already taken care of and every single one of our neighbors came up to thank me for having such great friends. My favorite was, "I am sure glad that you guys are Mormons, because you brought a whole bunch more Mormons to our rescue".

Our ward family stayed for hours helping people that they didn't even know. Several people brought meals, brownies, cinnamon rolls, and many others offered to bring more meals. One neighbor came over today with a check to thank us and asked who to make it out to. Monica gently informed her that a thank you card would suffice.

Monica has a quote on the fridge by President Spencer W. Kimball, "God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs".

We are doing fine. We have power, but not water yet. Our propane tank was washed away, but hopefully we will get a new one soon so that when we do get water we will be able to have warm water. We feel incredibly lucky and grateful to our ward family and the service that they provided.

Still alive,

The Hills