Today was rescue day for several people on Ogles Gap Road. True to their word, the Search and Rescue helicopter hovered over Meaghan Weber's house as we headed down to the Archers' house. After airlifting Meaghan and her dog to Pat Archer's property, the search and rescue team returned, where they airlifted anyone else who wanted to leave.
We went to the Disney property and gathered Vicki, Lori, and their dog. They were the next to be airlifted away. Ron Nyegard was the following person to be rescued. Alan Fitzgibbon and the Matthews from Mountain Laurel were the last group to be evacuated. After everyone was airlifted out, we went into Patti Archer's home and emptied her refrigerator of any food....a gift to the bears.
This all took place before noon. Lance and I decided to take Kay's ATV as far as possible up Ogles Gap Road and then hike to our friend's place located at the very end of Mountain Laurel Lane.
Once we reached the top of Ogles Gap, we parked the ATV and crossed the creek. From there, we continued onto Hollow Log Lane. The small off-grid house at the beginning of Hollow Log Lane appeared to be undamaged from the storm, but there were a couple of large trees down at the end of their driveway.
The walk along Hollow Log Lane was not too bad until we reached the section that is usually quite rough. The amount of rocks that had washed down into the valley during this storm was unlike anything I had seen before. We climbed through the rock pile and continued along the road that would take us to Mountain Laurel Ln.
Once we reached Mountain Laurel Lane, we continued along the road and encountered a few rough sections, but they were nothing like the conditions we had seen on Ogles Gap, Tennis Court, and Deep Gap roads. The Pogue's, Matthew's, and Hedge's homes seemed untouched by the storm. We arrived at the Pratt property at the end of the road and were concerned about some subsidence of the bank in front of their home and a small landslide behind it.
We went inside their home, gathered the cushions that had been left on their patio furniture, and emptied their refrigerator of any food. We discarded the food in their driveway for the bears and other wildlife to snack on. Afterward, Lance and I took a moment to relax on their deck before retracing our steps to head back home.
We went back down Mountain Laurel Lane, Hollow Log Lane, and Ogles Gap Road to where we had left the ATV. We stopped at the Colemans' house to empty their refrigerator as well. No one wants to return home to a rotten fridge after a few weeks or months. At this point, we realized it would be months before we got electricity restored, so we thought we might as well make the bears happy.
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