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In the dark and powerless
for 4 days. It was great fun. Or not. We got pummeled in a severe thunderstorm/tornado on Friday night. Mostly it was just tree damage from straight-line winds, but there was a tornado touchdown a few miles southwest of us and some more tornado activity east of us. Our neighborhood had a few things that were clearly not straight-line winds, so I'm guessing a few stray tornado winds blew threw the other side of the neighborhood. Here's a very few glimpses from the mess around us. I could have taken pictures for hours and still not covered it all. Most of the houses in our neighborhood lost a huge tree. Many folks lost several. We got lucky and only lost a couple smaller ones and a few large limbs. Surprisingly, there looked to be very little structural damage from trees falling but those of us with basements were left with large muddy messes. Our AC didn't work after the power finally came back on. I went out to have a look and the wind had moved it over an inch or two. I shoved it back and now it works again. I wish fixing things were always that easy.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008 at 9:15 pm
The front yard doesn't look too bad. A couple of large limbs down there in the center of the picture.
These scrappy shrub trees have been dying off slowly, so they were on the long term list for replacement. That might come a little sooner now.
I actually kind of liked this scruffy pine.
This scummy water filled our garage and basement. Yum.
A bit of debris to clean up. A shovel did the job.
The house needs to be powerwashed. There are leaf bits stuck all over it.
This row of hosta went in last year and I was so pleased they came back bushy and pretty this year.
Unfortunately, they're not just bent, they're broken. Now, I'll have to wait another year to enjoy them. I've been consoling myself with the fact that my vegetable garden and my large perennial bed were protected by the house and left looking okay.
So, that was us. A little messy, but not bad. The trees across the street didn't fare so well.
My next door neighbor lost half of her enormous front tree across the road. Neighbors were out until 1 AM helping to get the street clear.
The neighborhood was a mess. It looked like this...
and this.
I don't think that bench is supposed to be up there.
This might have had something to do with the power being off for 4 days. This was at one entrance to the neighborhood.
We went out in search of breakfast on Saturday morning.
They were closed.
The gas station next door didn't look so hot either.
So, the moral of the story is, when the sirens blow, they mean it. At least they did this time.
We're slowly getting things cleaned up, inside and out.
05/30/2008
05/30/2008
05/30/2008
05/30/2008
05/30/2008
05/30/2008