'Tornado' Part 1

My, slightly dramatic take on our 'tornado' experience....

 

Ah...the day was winding down, I was vegging on the couch, trying to stop surfing through Pinterest, which ultimately leads to more projects for myself.  Brett should be on his way home from school.  I noticed the wind picking up a bit outside.  I had put most of the toys inside earlier, but still had the sand and water table umbrella and baby pool outside.  So I went to go grab those real quick, just in case.  I opened the door and the wind picked up even more- those toys could stay outside.  I shut the door quickly and trees started falling, things were flying, my boys started screaming...it was so loud...I ran upstairs, grabbed the boys, one in each arm and ran down to the basement.  Running up the stairs, I thought it was a tornado, I thought the roof was going to be torn off the house, I yelled out to the boys that I was coming, all I wanted was to get my babies someplace safe.  Once they were in my arms, they stopped crying, I kept telling them that everything was okay- though I think I was telling myself that too- my heart was racing, it was terrifying.  I tried calling Brett, his phone was off- so now I was worried about him too.  My neighbors from across the street called to check on us-they could see the trees on the house and were worried they were in the house.  Luckily they were not.  They also let me know the roof was still on the house.  Trying to calm down we hung out in the basement for a while until the storm calmed down.  Out the back window, we could see an orange glowing and feel a pulsing energy- at the time it looked like maybe a transformer was on fire.  The power started pulsing on and off as well and eventually, all the power went out when they came to fix this. After awhile, I could see flashlights outside, many shining in our direction.  I was able to put some music on from my phone for the boys.  They were content, so I ventured outside to let our neighbors know we were okay.  All the neighbors were out with their flashlights looking at all the damage and sharing their experience of what just happened.  Brett made it home while I was outside.  This is his commentary arriving home, "I came back from class and saw flashing police lights just outside my neighborhood - The had closed the road just outside of my neighborhood.  I was able to pull in, and saw a bunch of my neighbors walking around (at 11pm) with no lights on and flashlights.  Much to my amazement, when I got to my house, it looked as though a giant had taken a swipe across my property with a particular malevolence toward the trees."  

 We stayed in the basement with the boys for a bit, while we checked the radar to make sure no more storms were expected.  Then we headed back upstairs, read some books and put the boys back to bed.  They went back down without complaint.  Thank goodness.  Brett was exhausted, so we tried to go to bed, but I kept talking and just couldn't go to sleep.  I felt like I could go run 10 miles (wish I had that feeling during the day!).  Brett, the awesome husband that he is, just turned to me and asked me if I'd like to go downstairs and have some wine.  So that's what we did.  It helped, but I still didn't get to sleep until 3 or so, which is when the hum of chainsaws finally stopped (they had been clearing the trees over the larger road behind our house).  Then as soon as the sun started coming up, I was up!  And this is what we woke up to...

Yep, that's a tree welcoming itself in to the house!

  Here's what was remaining of the one big tree by our house, with branches hung up in it.

See, the branches down the street, those are from our maple tree... and this picture you can't really tell, but our T ball set also landed in our neighbors yard across the street.  It's difficult to describe just using these pictures, but the limbs in the above picture and T ball set are opposite the direction of most of the downed trees.  While, this wasn't determined to be a tornado- there was definitely a swirling pattern to the downed trees, limbs and debris.

Above you can see a bit of where the worst roof damage is.  Two of the big trees hit the house and bounced off- thank you sturdy stone walls.  There are several punctures in the roof and many of the rafters are broken.  Nearly all of the gutters and downspouts are broken.  We lost a few screens, cracked a few windows, knocked the chimney cap off, tore off some trim and flashing, etc.   

 

Yep, the entire backyard was covered with tree debris too!  Amazingly, the swingset was ok, the sand and water table flew 50 ft  to the backyard- but was totally okay.  Our grill and patio set also made it unscathed!  

There's one of the uprooted trees.  And under the tree, is our AC unit, which also came out unharmed!  Yeah!  This all could have been so much worse.  We are soooo very lucky that the damage was not worse and that we are all okay!  Truly grateful!