During Hurricane Dorian, Hatteras villager Belinda Willis recorded a chronicle of her experiences on the Facebook page for Lee Robinson General Store, since 1948 and on her personal page. She concludes her posts with Peace. Love.

Sept. 4. 6:36 p.m.
Updating! We have closed the store and are concentrating on getting everything ready today!
We will get storm surge for sure. How much? Who knows! Thursday we will hunker down in the house and pick up our downstairs! Keep us in your prayers!
Yes the cats will hunker with us!

Sept. 5. 8:04 a.m.
The Pamlico is beautiful this morning!! In 8-12 hours it will be a different . . . keep praying everyone!

Sept. 5. 5:47 p.m.
Thank you all so much for your prayers, and positive energy sent our way! We are done, cleaned up, put up, moved and lugged stuff for two days.
The Village is so quiet.
It is beautiful outside, the trees are beautiful and green.
Checked out the ocean and passed this beautiful cactus plant! Keep praying! We love you all and appreciate everyone’s support and friendship. Will post in the morning what we wake up to or what wakes us up!

Sept. 6. 6:45 a.m.
Sun just rose! It is blowing and raining very hard.
The water in the Pamlico has left and there are shoals showing! Looks like the eye is going to go right over the top of us! Please keep us in your prayers! Will post when I can get some photos!

Sept. 6. 8:08 a.m.
We are in the eye! Ocracoke is flooding we are next! Keep praying friends not over yet!

Sept. 6. 9:56 a.m.
Keep praying everyone! It is a bad one for sure! The tide highest I have seen in a long time! Our Island will be devastated!

Sept. 6. 1:58 p.m.
When rain stops we will venture outside.
Honestly there is stuff everywhere! We are heart sick!
Will keep you updated later. Keep praying it is going to be a long recovery for Hatteras Village and Ocracoke!
But, we will remain positive! Hope to get back at it sooner than later!

Sept. 6. 4:59 p.m.
Hi friends so the Hurricane has passed! Our house once again got flooded and my back door is gone! So to say the least it is a mess. But, I can say even though I am heartbroken I am ready to move forward and start the clean up! My house will be my priority! The store looks ok but, we have not ventured there yet?? Everything floated away ice machines, recycle shed, gas containers it is a true mess! On the happy note the sun is starting to shine and the wind has died. Will keep you posted! Going to be long haul! Another happy note is that Christina is on her way home tomorrow! In the past she has been deployed to other places for Hurricanes. I am overjoyed she gets to be here this time to help! Thank you all so much for your prayers and positive energy much needed indeed!!

Sept. 6. 7:19 p.m.
Amidst the destruction there is beauty! Tomorrow will be a new day!

Sept. 8. 5:45 p.m.
Happy Sunday!! Sitting here waiting for the sun to rise and planning our next priority. Everything we have has had extensive damage and we are taking one day at a time. Thankful there was no water in the store but we have roof damage and outside looks like we have been chewed up and spit out by a monster! Our home was flooded by Hurricane Dorian as the force of the water from the Pamlico was way too much and it pushed our door down off the hinges and bam that was it for us! Lucky for us we had put up most of our things. Few treasure were lost but, in reality it is just stuff! Yesterday morning as we stood there trying to decide where to start cleaning up as there is mud and seaweed everywhere and the back door gone. I looked and here come our friends and neighbors to help! Kate, Vanessa, Bruce, Steve and Ethan!
Honestly, I cried with happiness when I saw them come.
We will be forever grateful to you all! By yesterday afternoon my downstairs looked like I could live there again! Vanessa scrubbed all the mud from our tile bathroom. Having a place to shower that is clean is the best feeling in the world after a long day. Kate scraped mud and mopped my bedrooms hallway. Steve and Ethan took all the damaged stuff out to the curb. Couch, shelves, books, treasure that you save, a craft you are going to make, barbies, beanie babies you have because . . . ??? Now that our house is basically in livable shape we begin our recovery of the store.
As you probably can guess we have cancelled our Taste of North Carolina this coming weekend.
The Village is in no shape to host any events for now.
Please pray for our friends and neighbors in Ocracoke as they begin their recovery also. Having to stand and look at our devastation is overwhelming.
We are so blessed to live on this beautiful Island with a community of people that are your family!
Will let you know what our plans are but, for now, it does not look like we will not open until mid-week. We will regroup and go from there. If you are looking to donate the Salvation Army is the absolute best!! They have already set up down here. They have always, always been here for us!
BTW Tippy and Bugger rode out the storm rather well. Tippy hates to be inside for long. He was one happy cat when he got to go outside.

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