What a July we had this year. It started with a bang! Just to set the scene, we were coming home from church on Sunday, just after noon. As we were leaving the building for our fifteen minute ride home, we could see some dark clouds by our home, but nothing worse than storms we had seen already in the year. As we go closer to home, we could feel (and see) that this was not a usual storm and that we were in for a big one.
When we were within about two miles of our home, we could see tree branches starting to fall, along with hearing and feeling hail hit the car. The next block brought really big branches falling from the trees. Big enough to block the road. The rain was coming down so hard, we could hardly see out the windows. We would go down a street until we ran into a branch too large to pass and have to turn around. We felt like we were in a Pac Man game with all of the twists, turns and backtracking.
We probably made a dozen or more attempts to get to our home. Every road was blocked. The wind had picked up, the rain was pouring down, half of the kids were crying and Marci and I were keeping our eyes peeled for branches that might fall on our car. It looked and felt like a war zone. We finally made a huge loop around our neighborhood and came in the back way.
We were not prepared for the damage to our neighborhood. Huge trees were laying on the ground as if they had been snapped like a toothpick. Of course, we had no power and no plan. It was Sunday afternoon, we had guests (my mom and nieces) coming in three days, and no way to get prepared in time.
I immediately jumped in my truck and Austin and I went to Home Depot to buy a generator and a chainsaw. We could tell by all of the trees on powerlines that we were going to be without power for awhile. We also knew that our neighbors, who are mostly elderly, would need help cleaning up their yards. Again, we were not prepared for the challenge that lay ahead in clearing trees, cleaning up yards, and most of all, waiting to get power back.
We learned a few days later that we had experienced a "derecho" storm, or a straight, strong wind which goes in a narrow band. In effect, there was about a twenty mile long, by three mile wide path of destruction. The wind did not swirl, so the trees and powerlines all laid down in one direction. The rain was powerful, but brief, so no flooding, just lots and lots of trees laying on the ground.
It was funny (no ha, ha) but we could drive five miles to the north or south and they had no idea what we were seeing and going through. We were without power for almost a full week, in July, without air conditioning, with a house full of guests. Fun!
However, we made it through with a generator to power the fridge and little t.v., cooking outside and counting our blessings. We were very lucky to have a basement, which stayed relatively cool, at least allowing us to sleep at night.
You can just barely see a raccoon in our window well, but it is there! Marci and the kids were helping our neighbor clean up their yard when Marci started our leaf blower to clean off their porch. She scared a huge raccoon out from under the deck (not sure who was more scared or surprised) and it ran right into our window well, unable to get out. The window was open slightly to allow our power cord in from the generator, so Marci was in a hurry to get that raccoon out. She and the neighbor ended up putting a ladder in the window well, thinking the raccoon would use it later in the day to get out. Well, no sooner had they put the ladder down when it shot up the ladder and disappeared. Adventure after adventure.
We finally got through the storm and initial clean up, when we were hit with another wind storm, knocking down the last of the weak trees. Mary Ann lost here large pine tree. We could not believe it. Mary Ann called to get a quote to remove the tree and it was going to cost her over $400!
Well, we had just purchased a chainsaw, needed practice using it, and I'm the scout master. What could go wrong? Actually, nothing. I let every boy use the chainsaw and we cut down that tree and removed it in a few hours. $400 saved and good experience for each of those boys in giving service and learning how not to cut off a finger, or hand!
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