Wow, the last 24 hours have been crazy!
Getting dinner ready yesterday afternoon I was so thankful for the overcast skies. It sure kept the heat out of the kitchen, though the humidity was High. Once the cornbread was baking, I had time for a little internet surfing and Iced Tea.
It was VERY still outside...not good...so I pulled up the weather report about the same time as my guys called me to see something outside. They were very excited so I ran to the back to see rain pelting the patio. But it was the whirling, swirling of the clouds above us that caused us to be wide eyed.
Back inside, to the covered front porch we ran for shelter from the rain and better view of the sky. We stood there for a few seconds when a large branch was snapped from this tree and thrown to the ground.
Notice the house is missing a set of shutters on the right window? They just had them painted last week. Ugh!
Well, we knew to get back in the house!
In the kitchen the window over my sink was closed and locked but water was filtering in from the force of the wind...I was cleaning up the water when my son commanded I get out of the kitchen as he was afraid the window would break. Good thinking, so I complied.
The storm sirens were going off all around as the trees were being twisted, their branches swaying hard left, right then straight down. In minutes the water was over the curb and 5 trash cans from back alleys had found there way to the high water intersection. The yards looks littered with foot long branches and bits of roof shingles.
And then we lost power.
It had to be mid 90s when the power went out. My original plan was to take a shower once the corn bread was cooked but no way I was getting in the shower with the winds so high and a tornado on the ground three blocks over.
Mom called to tell me we were having bad weather, Hubby called to tell me he was sending employees to shelter.
I still hear the sirens ringing like a casino in my head. The pulsating of the warning system and the race of police and rescue sirens over lapped each other with the sound of a fire truck passing occasionally down the main road.
And, our own alarm system squawking at each pulse. Loud blaring smoke alarm and the panel beeping out of control, 3 of us trying to make it stop and couldn't. We had momentary control for half hour intervals and still I don't know why,with no power, the blasted thangs kept going off. But they did.
9:30 we had dead quiet peace from the wind...finally. Three waves had hit hard.
The doors stood wide open to let in a breeze that was cool but wet, as the rains were gentle summer sprinkles highlighted with viscous lightening. I prayed the power would come back on soon and went to bed with 3 cats who were weary of loud noises and crazy alarm systems.
Still
Hot
The lightening never ended. The thunder rumbled once to the end of the Earth and back around until I had no idea if it was the same thunder or a different one.
I got up 6 or 7 times for water, for relief from the fur babies who were laying next to me for comfort.
Finally at 3am the power came back on and the alarm began going crazy once again.
At 5am I went to bed...in the cool confines of my bedroom, fan blowing it's assurance of comfort.
At 6:30am I am aware of nothing but my son's near hysterical words as he flew downstairs announcing another tornado. He was numb, half asleep, sitting on the stairs sobbing. I didn't hear the pop nor was I awakened by the brightness of the lightening that hit our street...only the sound of him in need of comfort and my husband and older son's excited voices as they stood looking out the windows.
And again that alarm system roaring its presence!
And still I have had no shower, dried on sweat, hair matted, nerves spent. I grabbed my flash drives and prepared my laptop for a journey...told everyone to get dressed as we might not want to be found walking around like we looked.
Jeans and a t-shirt with pocket for my two flash drives, brushed my teeth, found my shoes and tried to think straight.
About 7am, my older son agreed to drive me up to look at the house on the corner. Hubby pointed out it's tree was laying on the ground and looked like shrubs.
But on the way to the corner, we passed this...and it looked worse in the back yard. We live on the other side of that red brick to the right.
We road up a couple streets and shot these photos...different house, same photo. Trees snapped like tooth picks laying on the ground.
I've never seen telephone poles leaning like this...You can see the blue in the left of the photo signaling another round of storms so we turned onto our street to go home.
Today we ran into town and saw more trees on houses, trees snapped like tooth picks at the base or totally uprooted. The apartment down the street had bricks blown off and the roof slid off as well. I haven't seen and news as our internet and TV have been down until just now. They had to totally reinstall our FIOS.
We are finally back online, The television DVR will be here tomorrow, power is up and we are cool. The alarm system has settled down. The cats are curled up in the windows or on chairs and I think we will all sleep better tonight.
I'm off to see if I can find any news on what happened in our area last night but wanted to post photos while it was on my mind.
I sure hope things have been peaceful where you are and look forward to visiting everyone's blogs.
Gosh, it was horrible being without TV and internet!!
Hugs to all,
Melissa
