Dark and Horizontal (Words You Don't Want to Hear About the Weather)

It was Sunday afternoon and it was still really hot. We knew the cold, storm-filled front was coming, but I thought it was arriving closer to 5 pm. But just after 3:30 pm the sky went dark--really dark. The boys were just finishing up a bit of Wii-time and Neats was catching a few minutes with a book and I was contemplating the next garden-centric dinner (more in another post) when I realized it went quiet and then went wicked.

The wind erupted and in a manner of minutes was almost horizontal--like something I had not seen since living in the Midwest. I had been tracking the weather on the computer but had not seen anything about the tornado warning we would later learn had been issued. Not that I needed a radio to tell me what we should do. We all hit the basement fast as the front came in. The power was off seconds later and no more than 20 minutes later the front had passed.

When we emerged, our yard was a mess--branches down all over, plants laid low, pots tipped over--but no major damage. We hunkered down to wait out the loss of power, skipped the gourmet meal and had sandwiches and what not from a quickly opened and closed refrigerator. After dinner, a quick walk up the street showed us we had not been overly cautious. Debris was everywhere and whole trees were ripped out of the ground. See for yourself.

These are some of the worst, but the damage all over the neighborhood was significant with branches and wires down on every block. It wasn't a tornado, but bad enough!

We would have reported earlier, but we haven't had power for 48 hours--it is just back on a bit ago. The upside is that the storm wrenched all the humidity out of the air for the time we lost power, so for the first time in weeks we enjoyed the weather. The boys survived without any video game access (and I survived without music) although The Artist at one point called out: "Come back power! I miss you electricity."

Indeed. On the other hand, it wasn't so bad being disconnected. Looking forward to that same feeling due to vacation rather than inclement weather.