We Were Lucky!!!

Hello everyone...

I thought I should post a little something on my blog about the bad storms we got today. Thanks for the emails asking if we were OK...YES, we made it through unharmed, and with no real damage, but so many others got hit pretty hard.

We didn't even know there was a storm coming. John and I were in town running some errands and had just picked up our son Josh who wanted to tag along. We had just gotten to the grocery store and the two of them ran in to pick up a few things...I stayed in the truck and it suddenly hit!!

The wind gusts were recorded at up to 80 mph...no tornadoes, but a very severe thunderstorm!! I was all alone in the truck and was terrified!! The wind and rain was so bad that the truck just rocked and rocked, and at one point, the wind lifted the drivers side up off the ground and I thought for sure that I was going to go flying through the air...but luckily the truck stayed on the ground. (I'm thinking that the few extra pounds I gained helped me out there!) I had the radio on the entire time and there was a report that a semi truck and trailer was blown over on the hwy just south of us!! Sirens were going off...it was so scary!!!

I waited for almost 40 minutes for the storm to pass before John and Josh came out of the store and then we drove over to Josh's house and it was like a maize for blocks and blocks!!! Trees were snapped off and even up-rooted and they were across the streets and on houses, power lines were down...it was like nothing I had ever seen before...even when we lived in Florida and Hurricane Gabriel went through!!

Hannah's area got hit pretty hard too. Her car was damaged by a flying garbage can, denting the whole front quarter panel of her car. A basketball pole/hoop and trees came down in her neighbors yard, just missing her car.

All the way home from town, we were worried about our house...we didn't see much damage out our way until we got to the little town we live by. Lots of bigger branches and smaller trees and thankfully none of our surrounding neighbors, except one that we know of had much damage. Our entire back yard was covered in branches...all ranging from about 6 feet to 10 feet long and TONS of smaller branches and leaves all over, but our front yard was CLEAN of any debries!! We were so lucky!!!

 Here are a couple of pictures...not really much to speak of, but it will take a couple of days to get it all cleaned up. :(

Here is the driveway...just small branches and leaves...no big deal.

Back yard...it is hard to tell with this picture, but these branches are actually quite big.

Another view of the back yard...just lots of leaves and bigger branches.

John already has all of the big stuff cleaned up, and we did get some much needed rain, so at least something good came of this storm!!!

I"ll post again tomorrow or Monday...something a little more fun...until then, have a wonderful weekend!!

Have fun, and by all means...stay safe!! Tina