Yesterday I was in my office and at about 4:45 I looked out the window. It has been oppressively hot here for the last several days, so you do what you have to do, and burrow in for the rest of the day. All of a sudden it was very dark. I thought hmm, I better go out and cover the furniture. All the shades were drawn on the deck to try and reflect some of the heat, so I was able to get those rolled up and then started on the furniture. I came in the house and said to the husband it’s really dark outside. We immediately turned on the news and sure enough they were warning of 80 MPH winds.

We decided we better go back out and make an attempt to batten down the hatches. There is a lot of furniture and pots etc creating lots of projectiles. Of course I didn’t want my lovely pots to be destroyed and all my flowers but I quickly realized they didn’t matter. We took mirrors off the wall removed the iron chandelier, buried one hanging basket, stacked chairs and then the sirens blew. Not a thing was happening so we just carried on. Trying to save what could be saved.

And then the wind started to blow. My daughter text to say she wasn’t going to be able to make it home to her house so she was going to shelter here. She pulled up in front of the house and the neighbors tree came down. Luckily it was across the street but, I was watching for her and couldn’t figure out why she wasn’t getting out of her car. It was just beginning to rain. She was watching the tree limbs coming down.

Finally in the house, we stood at the back door and watched this horrendous wind pick-up heavy chairs and toss them across the deck, pick up my 42″ planter in front of the deck and set it back down. We watched as the plants were tossed and flattened, and the neighbors tree limbs started to come down, trees stripped of foliage. We didn’t have a tornado, and they said on the news that, that wasn’t expected. The sirens were going off because of the wind. This went on for maybe 45 minutes and then the power went out.

We rarely lose power because all our power is underground. Lighting a few candles at 6:00 in the evening we waited it out. When all was clear we still had no power but, we took our first steps outside to access the damage. Our yard looked like an oasis in neighborhood of downed tree limbs. We had one pot blow over in the front, and we had debris from all the neighboring tree limbs but, we were so lucky. We no longer have old growth trees. Most of our neighbors still have the original trees that were planted in our brand new neighborhood 45 years ago. Most of them were Maple trees and they cannot withstand 80 MPH winds. We’ve maintained, trimmed, and taken out anything that has had the potential of becoming problematic. Thanks to the husband we lost no trees.

We righted our turned over chairs, retrieved the chair cover that blew off and started to clean up. We discovered we have 2 sections of fence that came loose and will need to be repaired but that’s it.

My daughter and granddaughter not so lucky. While my daughters home was fine they had lots of downed trees and lost a shop on the property.

My granddaughter had a car accident trying to get home during the storm. No one was hurt thank goodness but, she got home to a hole in her roof. Again an old growth tree came down and hit the roof. So now instead of just planning a wedding in September they now have to move out, until they can get their home repaired. Again no one was hurt and all can be fixed, so we are thankful.

It was an early night at our house last night. With no power we decided to just go to bed. Around 1:00 this morning we were rudely awakened by the bedroom chandelier blasting light at us. The power was back! The husband did his due diligence and went around and reset and turned everything off.

I don’t think I have ever experienced wind like that. It gave me new appreciation for people who live in hurricane prone areas. There is not a chain saw to be had in this city, and I’m sure the buzz will be with us for days to come.

In driving to the thrift shop to mail packages today it took me an hour to get there, when normally it would take me 10 minutes. Of course I got there and the power was still out and I couldn’t get in. The entire city is devastated with the 3rd horrendous storm of the season. But this was city wide. I decided today was a good day to stay home!

Thanks for stopping

Shelley