Whacked!!

This has been an interesting Spring/Summer for us weatherwise. If I were a paranoid sort of person, I would think someone up there has it in for us.  We spent the end of May dodging some of the most severe storms seen in the Midwest in years (you can read about that little gem of a road trip here.) Then, right after we drove back West across Massachusetts, that state was hit by a series of Tornados. For those of you who live in the midwest where such things are common, it would probably help to know that New England is not known for twisters.

In mid June, our area was hit by a pretty serious windstorm that took out several trees along the lakefront and we took it in stride. 

Then, June 30th at approximately 7:45 we got whacked.

It had been a pretty normal day, hot but not that oppressive, high humidity, 90+ degree heat that usually precedes serious storms. I was in the backyard trying to convince our 16 week old puppy that now would be a good time to empty his bladder and let me move on to other exciting household chores. John had just finished watering the garden and headed in  to change clothes. And our daughter was at the bottom of the driveway creating her usual sidewalk chalk masterpieces.

Little things I remember:

Far off rumbles of thunder and a vague flash or two of lighting which led me to believe that my efforts to get the dog to pee were going to be fruitless.

John looking up at the sky, which had turned a sickly shade of yellow green and commenting: "Sky's looking pretty weird - Tornado weather...." (We've spent most our lives in Tornado riddled states so we pretty much know that sky when we see it.)

And, I would later find out that my daughter happened to have her camera with her and also had the presence of mind to feel that something was brewing because she filmed the clouds as they passed overhead and commented "Clouds are moving pretty fast....."

The next thing I knew I was surrounded by a wind I can only describe as "Wizard of Oz" like in it's intensity. I ran to the top of the driveway and yelled down to Kate, only to have my words whipped back into my face. I gestured frantically and screamed as loud as I could to get her attention. She looked up and give me the typical 12 year old "Just a minute" raised finger. "NO! RIGHT NOW!!" I screamed.

They say a Tornado sounds like a freight train. Well, I live right next to some train tracks and hear the freights go by on a regular basis and I can attest to the fact that this wind sounded exactly like a freight train. At that point I knew I had to get my daughter and myself into our house and down into our basement immediately.

As we ran into the house I practically threw Kate and the puppy down cellar stairs and started screaming at John to get out of the upstairs. All I could hear was stomping and swearing. Turns out he was wrestling with the windows on our addition trying to get them closed and they kept whipping out of his grasp. He also was watching our 4 cedars lean over our cars at a 40 degree angle, threatening to snap at any moment.

Less than a minute after getting into the basement, the power went out and all was blackness. Three minutes after that it was all over. We could no longer hear that freight train wind and we emerged to take stock of the damage.

This is the first thing we saw:

Followed by this:

And this:

(That would be the transformer for our bit of the neighborhood) 

One by one the neighbors all emerged like folks leaving an air raid shelter. As we checked to see that everyone was all right and started to assess the damage we encountered this:

What you may not be able to see right away is the fact that there are two giant Maple trees down and that, under them, is a house.

From this angle you still cannot see that, to the immediate right of the house with the red roof is another house covered by tree. 

Here you can finally get a sense of the damage.

This was taken 3 days later after the tree removal crew had cleared the first tree and already spent a day and a half working on the second. The good news is that the tenant in the lower half of the house was unhurt and the tenant in the upper half was away from home at the time. Which was a very good thing as the tree sliced through the roof and into the upper story playroom where the little boy who lived there watched TV and played his video games. Under that tree is small child's chair that was completely annihilated. I'm told that the plaster is cracked on every wall, the doors won't close, and the entire house was knocked back off its foundation.

Needless to say the entire neighborhood was without power. John hopped on his bike to check on our sailboat in the harbor and also see if there was any power at his office. The good news was that our boat was fine and his studio still had power so, if push came to shove, we could always relocate down there. 

We would later find out that the harbor was hardly the unscathed area that John had thought. While our dock was fine, it turns out that several of the other docks broke free of their pylons and went careening back and forth in the marina. The dock immediately north of ours headed southwards, running into our dock. It then ricocheted back north and came to rest intertwined with the next dock over. In the following photo you can only just see that some of the boats are touching and the gap between the docks is not the 20 feet it is supposed to be.

The northernmost dock actually ran aground and these boats are all sitting on their propellers. Witnesses in the marina said that an enormous wall of water - possibly a series of waterspouts - climbed over the breakwater and slammed into everything in its path. 

It turns out we were extremely lucky. Our only real damage was the loss of our ancient lilac bush,

and the demise of our driveway. At first it looked as though our cars would remain trapped near our garage indefinitely but John managed to rig up a ramp and draw a sort of map with chalk to navigate the cars through. (The rainbow came compliments of Kate. Below she has written "cheer up - it's a rainbow" - gotta love that attitude!) Another note - the neighbor has been working on his garage and hired a dumpster for his debris. That dumpster saved his deck and his garage. The tree didn't even dent it.

The next morning I headed out on my bike to take stock of the rest of the area and take some pictures:

My daughter in my immediate neighbor's yard among 2 of the 6 trees he lost.

 

An all too common sight all over the area.....

Our lakefront parks lost probably 65% of their older trees.

You cannot truly get a sense of the scope of this. It is a pavilion roof for a picnic area and is easily 50 feet across.
 

Another overturned tree - the people give you a sense of the size of the roots. This is probably a 150 year old tree.

Another view of the same roots - This tree is right along the lakefront at the edge of the park and I'd love to know how the bricks got into its root system. There are no buildings anywhere near it. Perhaps filler from an ancient breakwater?

Another of the area's oldest and biggest trees - if you look closely you can see a young man sitting on the tree.

A closer view of the same tree's roots.

Let's hope this port-o-potty was unoccupied.....

 

An "ex" garage

Here is the same garage two days later after the trees are removed. At the right you can see the neighbor's demolished red car. Which was, sadly, brand, spanking new....

The scene at historic Kemper Center where John had a previous studio.

 
 And finally, our breakfast the day after the storm. When you are about to lose all the ice cream in your freezer, sometimes you have to take one for the team.

We are all still cleaning up and digging out from under tree debris. And we lost power again yesterday in another storm so the scary season-o-storms ain't over yet. But, so far (knock wood) that twister with our name on it hasn't found us yet!

Note: a special thanks to the crews from WE energies and also all the tree removal crews. They all worked tirelessly around the clock to get our power restored and our homes free of killer trees. If I could, I'd buy every single one of them a drink!

 
 
 
 
 

 

 

Comments

[Tom Racine]

Good LORD woman...that is amazing stuff. The sheer size of those trees...from WIND. Nature...she is a serious b*tch goddess sometimes. Thank goodness you guys are OK and your home in good shape as well. In San Diego, "weather" is something we hear about in song and legend...

[Mark Tatulli]

And here I am sitting all angry because two GPSs' were stolen from our cars. Thanks for helping me to keep things in perspective.

Mark Tatulli

[anne hambrock]

@ Tom,

Yeah we were very, very lucky! There was one fatality - a guy on a motorcycle was hit by a tree and killed instantly!

@ Mark

Well , getting stuff stolen from your car DOES totally suck even if is isn't as bad as a tree falling on your house!