Perdido Winter Solstice 2004

Matt and our friend Trey went to the beach house in December 2004 to work on repairing some of the damage resulting from Hurricane Ivan, which passed through on September 16.

Select the first photo below to start a slideshow of all of the photos, together with explanatory notes for each one.

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Moldy ceiling, room 5: December 18, 2004. room 3 room 4 & hatch to attic Granny's room (room 5) floor in room 5 (Granny's room)
kitchen room 1 room 1 View to south: note ruined docks, good cedar & magnolia trees. Cedar to right has cracks indicating that it is doomed. That oak tree looks okay. The bay is lovely in the winter!
southeast View to east. That pair of oaks has suffered, but might not be doomed. East view. Oaks are there. That big cedar is gone. Bay side of house. Roof covered with plastic. Nice white beach. The bay is out for the winter.
Lots of beach. That's a fold-boat. Roof of neighbor's gazebo is resting on the ground. Look at the tree in the dock! Farther-away pier in picture was being rebuilt just last year. Most of the seawalls suffered a lot. Ours was the only one that retained sand to a significant degree. That's our house in the background. Late afternoon, December 18, 2004.
All of the screens are ruined. The remains of the cantilevered deck are in the yard there. The dining room is fine. The table is not wet in this picture; that's just the sun reflecting off of the finish. The dining room stayed almost completely dry during the rainstorm while Matt was there. There were a few drips during a strong rainstorm. Priscilla and one of her nice dogs, in her living room. IMG_7499.JPG Priscilla's yard. The oak trees survived. Those are salvaged pieces of pier making a walkway down to the beach.
Sunrise on Perdido Bay sure is lovely. December 19, 2004. Beach at dawn at low water. Beach at dawn. Holes in front yard, caused by erosion. Matt and Trey did their best to fill in the holes but ran out of time. Priscilla's side of the wall with the deep hole. At the back you can see the old cinderblock wall that Matt replaced twenty-five years ago.
Twisted turnbuckle, formerly anchor foir cantilevered deck, shows how great the forces were. The stairs leading down to the beach are still okay. Here you can see some of the holes that Trey and Matt filled in. Dawn - isn't it lovely? Neighbor's bathhouse. Notice how raggedy the roof is. There's a big tree leaning on the roof of this house.
There's Matt's reflection in the mirror inside the house. Self-portrait with furniture. Some of the furniture was no worse than it always had been. Self-portrait with furniture. Some of the furniture was no worse than it always had been. Room 2 and the canoe. In the corner of the picture you can see the swinging bed, which was placed there to protect the sink. Note that the trim has been removed, leaving unpainted strips. There was a lot of trim! Room 2. More trim missing. This is the room Matt did by himself Sunday morning.
Another view of room 2. Room 2 without ceiling. Stuff from ceiling now on the floor. Stuff from ceiling now on the floor. This is room 2. Room 2.
Attic from room 2. Room 2, all cleaned up. Room 2, all cleaned up. Lovely bay. The water is out even more. You can see the post that we tie the boats to - dry! December 20, 2004 Standing on dry land, where we normally park the sailboat in the water. Is this because of the winds that come from the north?

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Page created: December 23, 2004
Last updated: December 23, 2004