Update on the buildings at St. Michael's:

Dear Parishioners & Friends,

How wonderful to gather together yesterday to give thanks to God and support each other. Thank you to Iona Hope Episcopal Church for hosting us. In a show of God's great sense of humor, just as I started my sermon and said "in the last two weeks I had a bout in the hospital".. the power went out and emergency lights came on! We will be splicing the entire service together from iPad footage Sue took as well and it will be posted on our website by tonight. 

I gave an update on the buildings at the announcement time and will summarize it below. I want to thank FP Property Restoration (the FP stands for flood pros) and especially their president Steve Glosik and vice president Jason Floyd for making St. Michael's their top priority. They truly see us as "family" and the extraordinary effort they are putting forth with all of the drying equipment, crews working 12 hour shifts and yesterday trucking in a piece of specialized drying equipment is making a big difference in how quickly we will be able to get back into our buildings. We will know more later this week, as they continue the drying efforts and then formulate a plan on what can be saved and what needs to be replaced, especially regarding any flooring. 

I want to thank you all for your patience and your continued cooperation in not coming on site or trying to access the buildings. Every minute counts and not having to be distracted by stopping to turn people away and worry about liability issues with all the equipment, cords and baseboards with nails in piles is very helpful to them. 

Included is a video so you can see the tremendous drying effort going on and see that the damage is floor level and slightly above, not anywhere near what it was after Ian. Just to let you know, our Hurricane Prep Team moved many of the contents up off the floor, and items like the new piano in the music room, and av rack in the parish hall were also moved up before the storm. 

 Summary:
This was not an Ian event, a little worse than Helene but not Ian

1. Memorial Garden and Ark building had no damage
2. Main building, including sanctuary and office building had water intrusion of a few inches. 
3. Most important thing, FP Property Restoration was on site the same day the storm ended, on Thursday to do assessment and triage the pews/chairs
4. On Friday, massive amounts of drying equipment and generators arrived
5. What has been done: (drying phase)

• Moved pews and chairs out of the sanctuary to be able to extract all the water from the carpet flooring.
• Extraction was completed in the sanctuary, in the hallway, in the parish hall, in the kitchen, and in the office building.
• Drying equipment running in every room and dehumidifiers running in the ark building.
• Baseboard removals were completed in all areas and holes drilled in the drywall below the baseboard line to aid in drying
• Contents moved to the center of each room and put on blocks 
• Disinfectant applied everywhere.

1. In a few days, the president of FP, Steve Glosik will have a plan in place to get us back on site as quickly as possible. That is his number one goal, to return us to our beloved island home, quickly but safely. 
2. It's a maze of equipment, cords and baseboards with nails sticking up in there, so no one can access the buildings during this crucial drying out process. 
3. The buildings are secured each night.

 
Note that we will be consulting with professionals on resiliency measures we can take as these events will unfortunately continue due to climate change. We improved some things after Ian and I'll be convening a resiliency team to continue to make improvements using the latest advances in waterproofing, flood resistance and storm resiliency. 

As soon as we know more, I'll communicate that with all of you. In the meantime, continue to take care of each other, be the church of St. Michael and All Angels to all you meet and give thanks to God for all the blessings of this life.
Peace and blessings,
Bill+

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