Well, THAT was a Lot of Fun -- NOT!
Jul. 22nd, 2008 09:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
not_hathorYesterday morning I was jolted out of what felt like a really good night's sleep by an enormous CRAKITY-BOOM! at 6:20 am, followed by the power going off! I got up, looked out the back and the sky was green, gusts of rain slashing across the deck, Daughter appeared at my side (scared the begeebees out of me!) and said, Mom, the tornado sirens went off! I said a bad word, then went to the living room and closed the WIDE OPEN windows most of the way to try to keep the rain out (too late!) and saw a huge hunk of tree in the street out front along with a bunch of power lines, said another bad word, and dug out my cell phone to call Husband to see if he'd gotten to work safely (he had; left the house at 5:30 am, got to the plant at approx. 5:58am, storm hit at around 6:10). Daughter went back to bed. I tried to go back to bed, but couldn't sleep. This house is very well-insulated; sometimes it storms during the night and we don't know it until morning when we see that there are puddles everywhere! Daughter's room (used to be F-I-L's home office) isn't quite so soundproof, but she doesn't mind (she says).
Anyway, things calmed down, rain stopped (mostly), wind stopped mostly, and it was time to assess the damage. We were INCREDIBLY lucky. All up and down the street were broken and uprooted trees, downed power lines, shattered porches and damaged roofs. Next door lost a HUGE hunk of tree (took down the power lines out front); neighbors across the alley had roof damage from THEIR fallen tree -- we had a lot of broken limbs in the yard (still trying to figure out where all those cottonwood branches came from!) but as far as we can tell, no structural damage to house or garage, patio furniture blown around, but intact, and the only casualty seems to be the skrawny lilac bushes that we were thinking of chopping down anyway....
However, the town's power grid was COMPLETELY down.... no electricity. Some telephone landlines were still operational, but for for the most part it was cell-phones. I got out of the drive and headed up to work to see if the power was okay up there....things were even worse up the hill....no power ANYWHERE!!!!! I got to work, no electricity, called the boss on the cell phone, she said, 'go home, no point in being there....' So I spent yesterday dragging branches out of the yard to the street or to the alley and NOT opening the refrigerator unless I absolutely had to.... Daughter basically slept all day ('Wake me up when the power comes back on'), reassured the dog, read two of the BBC authorized Torchwood books (I kinda figured out the main gimmick of 'Border Prince' early on, but was curious on which way it would go; 'Another Life' was okay; interesting use of Second Person narrative to differentiate POV's).
Husband brought home charcoal and ice; ice went into the freezer and we grilled hot dogs on the front porch for supper. Also re-charged my cell phone using his car charger, because my newer model Buick doesn't have a cigarette lighter! Watched the MidAmerican Energy Co. trucks work their way down the street -- some high class entrainment there! -- Husband and I used the handsaw to hack up the larger branches that I couldn't drag by myself, and he finished cutting down the lilacs. Called my folks to let them know we were okay, found out that the storm had swept through about 20 miles south of them, so they were okay too.... Around 8:30am we rounded up some candles and flashlights and sat on the back porch watching fireflies and enjoyed the un-light-polluted view of the stars. Went to bed around 10 p.m.
The power came back on around 4:30 am this morning, at least in our area. It's STILL out up at the church, so here I am at home again. The entire Illinois side of the river got hit hard yesterday. I tried calling my doctor this morning and got the 'this number is temporarily out of service' message, so I'm wondering if my shoulder procedure is still on for Thursday -- if the power is still out in Moline, then maybe they'll want to concentrate on more urgent medical procedures the rest of the week. I'll try again later.
Husband took some pictures with his cell phone yesterday; I'll see if I can post them tonight.
*Whew!*
Anyway, things calmed down, rain stopped (mostly), wind stopped mostly, and it was time to assess the damage. We were INCREDIBLY lucky. All up and down the street were broken and uprooted trees, downed power lines, shattered porches and damaged roofs. Next door lost a HUGE hunk of tree (took down the power lines out front); neighbors across the alley had roof damage from THEIR fallen tree -- we had a lot of broken limbs in the yard (still trying to figure out where all those cottonwood branches came from!) but as far as we can tell, no structural damage to house or garage, patio furniture blown around, but intact, and the only casualty seems to be the skrawny lilac bushes that we were thinking of chopping down anyway....
However, the town's power grid was COMPLETELY down.... no electricity. Some telephone landlines were still operational, but for for the most part it was cell-phones. I got out of the drive and headed up to work to see if the power was okay up there....things were even worse up the hill....no power ANYWHERE!!!!! I got to work, no electricity, called the boss on the cell phone, she said, 'go home, no point in being there....' So I spent yesterday dragging branches out of the yard to the street or to the alley and NOT opening the refrigerator unless I absolutely had to.... Daughter basically slept all day ('Wake me up when the power comes back on'), reassured the dog, read two of the BBC authorized Torchwood books (I kinda figured out the main gimmick of 'Border Prince' early on, but was curious on which way it would go; 'Another Life' was okay; interesting use of Second Person narrative to differentiate POV's).
Husband brought home charcoal and ice; ice went into the freezer and we grilled hot dogs on the front porch for supper. Also re-charged my cell phone using his car charger, because my newer model Buick doesn't have a cigarette lighter! Watched the MidAmerican Energy Co. trucks work their way down the street -- some high class entrainment there! -- Husband and I used the handsaw to hack up the larger branches that I couldn't drag by myself, and he finished cutting down the lilacs. Called my folks to let them know we were okay, found out that the storm had swept through about 20 miles south of them, so they were okay too.... Around 8:30am we rounded up some candles and flashlights and sat on the back porch watching fireflies and enjoyed the un-light-polluted view of the stars. Went to bed around 10 p.m.
The power came back on around 4:30 am this morning, at least in our area. It's STILL out up at the church, so here I am at home again. The entire Illinois side of the river got hit hard yesterday. I tried calling my doctor this morning and got the 'this number is temporarily out of service' message, so I'm wondering if my shoulder procedure is still on for Thursday -- if the power is still out in Moline, then maybe they'll want to concentrate on more urgent medical procedures the rest of the week. I'll try again later.
Husband took some pictures with his cell phone yesterday; I'll see if I can post them tonight.
*Whew!*
