Sunday's Storm

When we came home from camping on Sunday it was hot and humid, perfect weather for a summer storm.  In the evening Tim called from work to tell me that there was a storm alert for our area and asked me to put the van in the garage.  So I did.  The above picture is of the area where I had the van setting.  It might have got dented if I had left it outside.

(This is some of the hail I found on the lawn.  That is a quarter and a cherry beside it.  We barely got any rain and only a few hailstones.  Mostly it was just wind.)

I had the local radio station playing so I could hear any weather related updates.  It started to rain.  We noticed the wind was blowing it in sheets across the south field.  I looked out our west door and saw that the wind was driving tree branches down the road, the clouds were swirling in the sky, and the radio station alerted me that the storm was now right in our area and we should take cover.

I told the children to go down to the basement and get under the hockey table which they immediately did.  I tried to get Elly downstairs but she is afraid of the basement stairs and wouldn't go.  We spent only a few minutes down there, I think.  We prayed and sang a few songs.  I don't think anyone was afraid.  I wasn't and they didn't seem to be. 

(Isn't the sky a beautiful color?  That direction is where the storm was the worst.) 

The storm didn't seem to last long.  The power had gone off almost immediately so I could hear when the wind stopped.  I went upstairs to see what things looked like.  I found about 8 big hailstones and a lot of branches laying around.  I heard trees cracking and saw one fall that was in the shelter belt across the road.

A couple of the sheriff's deputies stopped while we were outside.  We told them we were all okay and they left.

The power was out for several hours before a couple workers came and got it back on.  We had one big evergreen tree fall on a line in our north shelter belt.  They cut several of our trees down, trimmed some, tightened the lines, and put in 3 new anchors on the two electric poles we have in the yard.  We appreciated their speedy service especially as they had to work outside in the severe heat and humidity.

We were grateful for the safety in the storm.  We heard some had damage from a tornado.  When the electric men came back on Tuesday morning they told me the tornado by Berlin seemed to have traveled a path 12 miles long.  Our tree damage seems small compared to that.