The condo

It's now been about six months since Hurricane Ivan tore through the Gulf Coast of Florida and Alabama. You may remember that my parents had owned a condo in beautiful Perdido Key, Florida that suffered extensive damage in the hurricane. With both of my parents now gone, I guess this condo could now be considered "ours" (mine and my sister's), although fortunately for me my sister has been dealing with all the reconstruction and insurance matters. We were very fortunate that the building itself was still standing post-Ivan, but we were not so fortunate when it came to interior damage. We own a ground floor unit so it suffered serious wind and water damage. My sister and her husband went down there last fall to clear out the furniture (which all had to be thrown out because of mold, etc) and to salvage any personal items (which were few because my parents used it as a rental property for much of the year so they left very few personal things behind). The unit had to be gutted and hopefully the contractors will soon start work to rebuild the interior, after which we will need to redecorate and refurnish. As you can see from the recent attached photo they're also working on clearing the pool of sand. It's clear that the hurricane recovery will be a long process throughout the area. We've been told it could be up to a year from now before our condo will be ready. We're trying to be optimistic that it won't be quite that long! My understanding is that much of Perdido Key has just recently had water and sewer service restored, and that phone service is still spotty. According to the Perdido Key Chamber of Commerce website, "there is no longer a curfew for for the Perdido Key area". Keeping it all in perspective, we realize this is just a vacation home and that so many people have suffered much greater losses from the storms last fall.