Whew! I'm back. What a wild ride!!! The last 40 hours have been beyond description.
Ike came through here very early Sunday morning. Winds 48 to 81 mph. Power went out at 8 a.m. Sunday. Just came on a few minutes ago...almost 36 hours exactly.
When I stepped out of the front door early yesterday morning, it looked like a war zone on my street. There was no way a vehicle, let alone a person on foot, could've gone up or down the street. Trees were down everywhere and power lines were tangled like so much spaghetti.
I lost a huge limb from a pin oak. I heard, and felt, it hit the ground in the side yard. Lost lots of pieces of our 5 pecan trees. The driveway was covered with tree limbs and "drifts" of leaves blown off the trees.
Within an hour there was a cacophony of chainsaws, along with the sound of diesel engines from bulldozers and backhoes as the city crews worked to clear the streets so the power crews could do their work.
Later in the afternoon, I saw several flatbed trailers loaded with huge Caterpillar generators. Not sure where they were headed but the power "situation" was/is definitely serious here. There are still people here without power and may not have it for another day or two.
By late last night the our city and county were declared to be in a state of emergency/disaster area. 911 center wasn't even able to function.
When I was able to get out this morning, I drove the short distance to the shop to see how it fared and how our shop kitty, Julie, was doing. Shop and kitty were fine...just in the dark.
Main street (Front Street) was a mess, as was everything on the route I traveled to and from the shop.
Other parts of town/county have trees down, roofs off houses/barns, porches ripped off, tobacco barns flattened, power lines in snarls, cornfields trashed, you name it...it's torn up. It'll take months, perhaps a year to clean up and/or recover from this.
I've never seen anything like this and I've endured several tornadoes. All I can say is, "What a mess!"
The one silver lining I found was that, in the total darkness last night, the full moon was awesome.
Glad it's over.
Ike came through here very early Sunday morning. Winds 48 to 81 mph. Power went out at 8 a.m. Sunday. Just came on a few minutes ago...almost 36 hours exactly.
When I stepped out of the front door early yesterday morning, it looked like a war zone on my street. There was no way a vehicle, let alone a person on foot, could've gone up or down the street. Trees were down everywhere and power lines were tangled like so much spaghetti.
I lost a huge limb from a pin oak. I heard, and felt, it hit the ground in the side yard. Lost lots of pieces of our 5 pecan trees. The driveway was covered with tree limbs and "drifts" of leaves blown off the trees.
Within an hour there was a cacophony of chainsaws, along with the sound of diesel engines from bulldozers and backhoes as the city crews worked to clear the streets so the power crews could do their work.
Later in the afternoon, I saw several flatbed trailers loaded with huge Caterpillar generators. Not sure where they were headed but the power "situation" was/is definitely serious here. There are still people here without power and may not have it for another day or two.
By late last night the our city and county were declared to be in a state of emergency/disaster area. 911 center wasn't even able to function.
When I was able to get out this morning, I drove the short distance to the shop to see how it fared and how our shop kitty, Julie, was doing. Shop and kitty were fine...just in the dark.
Main street (Front Street) was a mess, as was everything on the route I traveled to and from the shop.
Other parts of town/county have trees down, roofs off houses/barns, porches ripped off, tobacco barns flattened, power lines in snarls, cornfields trashed, you name it...it's torn up. It'll take months, perhaps a year to clean up and/or recover from this.
I've never seen anything like this and I've endured several tornadoes. All I can say is, "What a mess!"
The one silver lining I found was that, in the total darkness last night, the full moon was awesome.
Glad it's over.
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