Storm Damage

The pretty square foot garden shot from yesterday

is quite a different picture today. 

Winds of 70 mph came through Union, MO and across

Robertsville/Catawissa bringing with it downed lines,

snapped trees, blocked roads and blinding rain.

Tree tops broke off and plants lay flattened to the ground.

The National Weather Service is reviewing the damage

to determine if it was straight line winds or a small tornado.

I saw it coming on radar and quickly drove my hour into work.

I didn't want to be in the middle of it, that's for certain.

I got the call from my husband not too long after.

 Trees fell across the road, not sure if I would get home.

Power was out and lines on the ground. 

Extensive tree damage but the house seemed ok.

A 20 ft section of tree top dangles in the front yard.

When you walk or drive down the road you have to 

take care to look not only where you are going,

but also up to see what might be coming down.

It adds a bit more challenge to the daily commute.

We needed a little more than suicidal deer and squirrel

 to add excitement to our drive. 

The ash tree leaning towards our drive was split in several 

sections, you can see a better view below.

It will come down with all certainty and lay across the drive,

so we'll have to cut it down.

In the upper left corner you can see where these large

limbs snapped off.  My husband, along with the rest

of the neighbors jumped into action to remove trees,

limbs and debris that was lining roads and in yards.

He cleared our driveway and moved much of it already

to the brush pile for future burning.

It's amazing how trees just snap.

More amazing that enormous trees can be thrashed 

back and forth so violently and be fine.

Limbs came down like spears, embedding themselves in the ground.

Fortunately no one was standing where any of them hit,

one good thing about it happening so early in the morning.

Of course many trees are not quite down,

and not in an easy position to be cut and know 

how they will fall.  Will they go down easy or kick back?

Hopefully the guys are a good judge.  It wasn't too long ago

that a guy down the way was killed when the tree fell wrong.

There are many more photos I could post,

and this was just at our place, not on the 

county road or up and down our street.

Roads are open and power restored so now it's just clean up.

It's a mess, debris all over but everyone was safe and the 

houses survived.  My husband commented on how upset I 

was when we first built the house and he cut the trees so far 

back.  He said that after going through several serious storms 

over the last 13 years, I'm quite over that now.