hail, limbs and shredded leaves
Journal Entry: Monday, May 5th 8:15pm
Last night I wasnt afraid... Tonight I am.
I dont have television here in the cabin, so the storms caught me by surprise last night... at the moment I dont have electricity. My phone is still working, but the line is stretched between the house and the fallen pole - the 'box' is smashed and lying in a puddle of water - I'm not sure if it will survive this second night of storms. All of my neighbors have evacuated the area with the rumors that tonight is going to be worse than last night. I feel... alone and isolated.
I have a few candles lit. The children are safely tucked away in a make-shift bed in the safest corner of the house. Despite the warnings we heard earlier, and the fierce lightning and thunder, they are sleeping peacefully.
I'm sitting here sipping cold coffee and watching the storm through the double glass doors. This may very well be the longest night of my life. Emergency bags are packed... hooded coats and blankets are ready... This is a night when my priorities seem very clear.
I lost power last night around 2:30am. I was up lighting candles when the children woke from the loud thunder a few minutes later. I went in and sat on the end of the bed in their room and was talking with them - Zack 11 years old and Ann Marie 6 years old - when the wind picked up. At first it was just the sound of howling wind, and then the hail started.
I got up and helped them grab their pillows and blankets and we moved to the inner hall. All of the double glass doors across the back of the house were rattling in their frames and hail was beating against the house loudly. At one point the ice pellets were blasting down the chimney and into the great room. We closed off all of the inner doors and sat together wrapped in our blankets... and waited it out. It was so loud we couldnt even hear each other talk, so we sat quietly and just listened.
When it seemed to calm down some, I got up to see what was going on outside. I had a hard time opening the door from the hallway to the great room, and when I did every other inner door flew open and a wind blasted through the house. All of the outside doors appeared to be secure, so I assumed it was a vacuum and ventured out.
It was pitch black and I followed the walls to the front hall and stood in front of the double glass doors... waiting for the next flash of lightning. When it came it almost blinded me, but for a brief second I could see the chaos outside - the trees uprooted and misplaced, the power lines dangling... and then it was dark again.
The children and I waited the storm out until daylight, when we were finally able to go outside and assess the damage. While our home and car went practically unscathed, both of my neighbors (one on each side) had trees through their roofs and quite a bit of structural damage. I was completely trapped in by fallen trees, power lines and debris. The massive raw roots of full grown trees were exposed in a clear path of damage that came up one side of my home... and went down the other. I was missed only by a few feet.
Most of my 23 outdoor plants are gone completely, and patio furniture was destroyed, but it was a small loss compared to many others in the area.
large limbs on the back deck
what's left of my beautiful flowers :(
one of many full-grown trees uprooted
(picture taken off my back deck)
driveway blocked by fallen trees & limbs
a near miss
this would be my utility pole...
...no wonder I dont have any power!
home
another overturned tree
clean-up began at 6:45am Monday
brush stacked out of the way
selective destruction
flooding continues
for days
following the storms...
power company arrived Tuesday afternoon
new utility pole
splicing & reconnecting my phone line,
which they accidentally cut through...
um, this would be my phone box...
not sure how it still worked!
(oops spoke too soon - it went out!)