Island family 'living in chaos' trying to stay positive after Dorian

A Miscouche, P.E.I., family says after post-tropical storm Dorian causedextensive damage to their home,they're choosing to stay positiveand focus on each other, instead of everything they've lost.

Dorian hit the Servos family hard.

The family of six lost power to their home around 3p.m. Saturday,which caused the sump pump to switch off.Almost immediately, theirbasement started to flood.

"It was an instant panic," said Brent Servos. "And so I was dealing with that and my wife was trying to deal with the four kids upstairs, two of which are autistic, and everyone was stressed."

He said that was followed by the flue disconnecting from the furnace and being ripped from the house by the wind.Then shingles from the home's roof started coming off.

Next, debris from the roof started to damage the swing set, with the set itself being destroyed and lifted by the wind.

"So my wife and I had to run out into the storm and destroy the rest of the swing set before it took off and it damaged other people's property." said Brent.

"And so we were out in the middle of the wind and pouring rain smashing that, while the kids were screaming inside, that their swing set was just destroyed."

He said once they got back into the house, they noticed water coming in through the ceilingand knew it was time to leave.

Camper trailer destroyed

They spent the night with Brent's parents, who still had power, and hoped to move into their camper trailer until their home could be repaired.

"Then we started seeing the reports of the emergency evacuation that took place at Crystal Beach campground," said Brent, which is where his family's camper was parked.

Thefamily monitored closely as the Kensington Fire Department and the RCMP rescued people from their trailers after a storm surgedestroyed the campground. At the end of it, the family's trailer had landed in a marsh.

"When I opened the door the whole thing was just mangled and full of seaweed and saltwaterand everything within it is damaged," said Brent.

With their home uninhabitableand nowhere else to gothe family of six has been living in a hotel room in Summerside since Sunday.

"It's been a bit of a nightmare because with all of our kids, especially with the kids with autism, routine is essential," said Amanda Servos.

"When you're living in chaos your life is chaos."

She said sharing one roomwith just a mini-fridge and a microwavehas been hard on everyone especially when it comes to reassuring the children that everything is going to be OK.

'Overwhelmed and scared'

"They're just completely overwhelmed and scaredand they don't know what insurance is," said Amanda.

"So they think that we don't have a house anymore, we don't have a trailer anymore."

The family saidit's been hard to find suitable accommodation while their house is being repaired which is expected to take months.

But they believe they've finally found an optionand hope to move the family out of the hotel as soon as possible.

'A huge relief'

"So much relief to know where we're going to be sleeping each night, to be able to get things structured for the kids againand get them back on routine," said Amanda.

"It's a huge reliefthat is one less thing to worry about."

Brent said the family is grateful for all the support they've receivedand believes the hardships will only make his family stronger.

"You hope that maybe something like this is more of an eye-opening experience for how stuff doesn't matter, but family does," said Brent.

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