Andy has been taking Max most of the time he goes out to work. Max is a really hard worker. 
This is just the Augusta Area 
Damage from Hurricane Helene and Milton 
Cleanup crew 
Most of Evans/ Augusta Area still looks like this. But look how cool the moon looked. That hunter’s moon was pretty awesome. 
Andy used this disaster as an excuse to by himself a new toy. 
I tried to get the little ones out to help, but these logs were the only thing that needed moving, and they were too big for the little ones to help.
While somethings have gone back to normal life– school is back in session where attendance actually counts, dance lessons are in full swing, sports are back to games and practicing, grocery stores are starting to normalize, etc.– some things are still off and sometimes a bit overwhelming. Andy has been out helping cut down trees and haul them to the curb. I’ve helped a couple of times with that, but Mav has a broken arm and Harvey and Bev are really too young to help, so I’ve tried to help by taking crisis cleanup hotline phone calls. It has been a bit overwhelming. The first few calls I took, I had to mute myself while I took some deep breaths to calm down and stop sobbing as I was listening to these poor survivors’ stories. I don’t think I’ve become callused, so to speak, but I have stopped having to swallow down tears. Partly because the cases are less severe as the time drags on and the people calling in have had more time to process all of this. But I have felt the covenant promise to mourn with those that mourn. Another reason it is a bit overwhelming is because of the sheer number. I can’t give a ton of my time (maybe an hour or a bit more a day) but even if I worked the whole day on the hotline, we’d never catch up with answering calls and sending out callbacks. We have over 35,000 cases that have called in requesting for help. Most are super grateful, but I can’t even promise them that they’ll get help. I have to tell them that because this is 100% based on volunteers, it can only keep going as long as we get volunteers and even while the volunteers are going, we can’t make any promises about when a crew can get out to them… or even if.
Despite working hard to get our community back in shape, we have also had time to recuperate and make some good memories. The kids worked hard getting the house back in shape after the hurricane, so we treated them to dinner and games at Dave and Busters for Christopher Columbus Day.
