We had quite the interesting morning. Luckily it was not as interesting as some in our neighborhood. We had “wrath of god” level of storm role through our neighborhood before 6:30 this morning. I woke up just as it was starting. We had huge gusts of wind that were almost frightening in their power. The wind gusted so baldy I could barley see trees outside. The one I could see was swaying ominously. We got little rain, but what we did sounded like grit hitting the house or thick mud with peddles and sand. Our house is now covered with dirt and torn pieces of vegetation—I actually think small piece of bark and twigs that came with the rain and the gusts. It was ferocious.
We lost power, and when I left around 11:30 we still didn’t have it. But power was a little problem compared to what some in out neighborhood suffered. Around 7:30 I went out to explore the neighbored with Bill, who had already explored. We could not get out of the neighborhood in a car. The nearest exist was closed because the road it attaches to had power lines and a few tress down on the road. It was closed for about a quarter of a mile. The other exit was inaccessible because a large tree was down blocking the road to get to the exit. We actually saw pieces of the street lights all over the road too from the downed poles on the main street. More seriously right across this street we saw a house with three (yes THREE) trees that had fallen on it and destroyed the roof in various places. Apparently a few more houses right near it were also similarly damaged and you could see furniture through the new holes. Damage in our actual neighborhood was not as bad. The house right next store lost four or so Bartlett Pear trees, one causing (comparatively minor) roof and gutter damage, and the rest just handed in a big pile (on their mailbox). A few other houses suffered roof damage. Apparently the people in one of the houses were in bed when a branch came through their bedroom ceiling and landed inches from them! Scary! The top of one tree I walked by was laying 30 feet away pointing in another direction. Several tress, and I mean substantial tress—not little weak tress—were ripped in half. We had really serious winds. Bill estimated between 80-100 mph winds.
Walking around the neighborhood this morning really felt like those people in all the post storm videos surveying damage. The neighborhood was so trashed and destroyed that it felt surreal. And yet, the damage still doesn’t compare to what may have gotten with hurricanes or tornadoes. I felt very thankful that our house was so lucky and that things were not nearly as bad as they could have been.
I did miss my lunch date today, but made it in to teach, due in part to Bill, who used his chainsaw to help move big tree across the road to the second development exit.
Bill took some pictures and I will link to them here too. I was quite happy my little spring flowers all survived. Shocked, but happy! I’ll post pictures of these too.
