Surveying the damage (better pictures)

I was able to get outside today with better lighting and no kids to take these pictures. I think they're better than the ones I posted before, although I'm still not sure you can get the full scope of the debris and destruction throughout town. Poor Jeff is outside in the freezing cold (and, oh it snowed last night) trying to get the pine tree cut down by himself.

You can see the huge crack where it broke off. The whole ground is covered in pine needles and pine cones. The ground is also cracked along the roots and base of the trunk. Before it broke, the wind had pretty much stripped it of all it's branches and needles on the side it fell. This tree is HUGE!!!! Our swing got thrown down. Luckily it didn't blow out of our yard.There are piles of leaves and junk all along our back door and fences.What was once the playgrounds.And the little, red wagon that has yet to move.Shingles from our newly roofed garage roof.My poor, little bird feeder. If I can find the missing piece, maybe I can fix it. Anyone have tips for gluing ceramic/stoneware back together?This is the tree in our neighbor's yard we thought was going to fall down during the wind storm. It's pretty damaged with big branches stuck throughout the top. Not to mention all the branches that have already fallen. We aren't sure what to do about it yet.I watched this huge branch crack off.More junk in the front yard from the park, including a garbage can, pieces of the pavilion's metal roof, and of course more leaves and branches.On a positive note, I was able to fix my wind chime. I thought it had made it through the storm ok until Jeff handed me a piece of it. And I did see a dozen or so quail running around the backyard so I know they didn't blow away.

If anyone's up for some fun, come by with a chain saw and dress warm! We've got a big mess to clean up.

Surveying the damage

If you haven't heard about the monsterous wind storm Northern Utah (mainly Davis County) survived, you must be living under a rock.

The storm rolled in Wednesday night/Thursday a.m. (very a.m.). It was insane! Now, I already have a fear of wind storms but this thing just might have traumatized me for life. The winds were unbelievable! I laid in bed all night waiting for something to come crashing through our house. I kept thinking, this must be what it's like to hear a tornado coming. I was TERRIFIED! I kept scooching over towards Jeff for protection but every time my cold hands or feet touched him, he pushed me away. I couldn't believe he and the kids slept through everything! In those rare moments when I was able to drift of to sleep, I'd dream about tornadoes hitting our house and not knowing where to hide my kids. It made for a very long night. I couldn't take it anymore and got up after I heard the third explosion from power lines hitting each other that night. That's when the power finally went off, about 6:30 a.m. or so. The worst of the winds would hit about then too. I could tell things were nasty out there but without my contacts in or glasses on, I didn't really know what we'd find once the sun rose. I did know our Adirondack chair was missing from the front porch but my wind chime was still going strong. I still can't figure out how that chair got off the porch and ended up where it did. Then I looked out the windows in the sunroom to see if any trees had fallen down. That's when I saw our playground fly up and over towards the fence! I was shocked and certain one of our huge, mature trees was going to topple on the house or garage.

When light came, we could see there was a ton of debris everywhere. A main power line had snapped (I'm guessing the third and final boom I heard just before the power went out) and was laying in the middle of our street. Firetrucks were everywhere, closing the roads so people would stay away from the downed power lines. A tree in the park had fallen across the road too. A half dozen garbage cans from the park were strewn in our yard and up against our fence. And the metal roof on the pavilion was now sitting in pieces in the park and our front yard. Huge branches from all of our trees were everywhere... in our neighbor's driveway and all over our yard. Our neighbor came over to warn us to get out of the back of our house because he was afraid the pine tree in their backyard, which is right next to our garage, was going to fall. If it fell, it was going to at minimum hit our garage if not our house and take out a power line/power pole with it... which could have been disastrous because three houses had already been lost to fire from downed power lines that morning. He was watching as it pulled up from the roots and lifted up their deck underneath it. At that point, and driven by the freezing cold because our heat was out and our 101 year old house has no insulation, we decided to get out of there and head into work. Apparently it was just Davis/Weber counties that suffered the brunt of the winds. As we drove onto the freeway we saw overturned semi trucks all over the place. There were also lots of trucks pulled over hoping to ride the storm out.

I kept checking news reports all day at work. Category 2 hurricane force winds recorded in Centerville.... 102 mph!!! That's about a mile or so from our house. Dozens of trucks overturned on the freeway. Business signs, parts of roofs/siding, blowing in the roads and into people's houses. Trees down on homes, cars, ripping up sidewalks, driveways, and even lifting a house off of its foundation. Thousands without power or heat in the freezing cold.

When we got home and surveyed the damage, we found out it wasn't our neighbor's tree that fell like we all thought it would but ours. Jeff and I always joked about wishing it would blow over because we hated picking up the pine needles and Jeff wanted to put a shed where it was, but actually seeing it on the ground was another thing. There are cracks in the dirt next to the roots where you can tell the wind was picking it up. I'm surprised the entire thing didn't topple. We're all still worried about the neighbor's tree falling because it's so damaged. It could easily fall with any bit of wind and that could be a huge mess. Our neighbor to the West of us lost a huge pine tree too, along with several other smaller trees. I found it funny that the wind blew all the leaves into giant, perfect piles next to our fence and back door. At least it will make it easier to rake up. We lost a few shingles from our garage too, but luckily all of Jeff's hard work paid off and he won't have much to repair. Here's where the playground used to be. You can see it next to the fence. Another, smaller, plastic playground got thrown into our fence/flower bed too. I have no clue where the sandbox cover went and our pool went into the neighbor's garden. But... the red wagon didn't move a single inch! I'm not kidding. The thing is in the exact same place. Oh and a bouncy ball we had in the yard is still there. How weird is that? Pearl FREAKED when she saw her playground ruined! FREAKED! I guess we'll be building a new one come summer.I'm totally bummed that my bird feeder didn't make it. I realized it was swinging wildly in the wind as I watched the playground tumble over itself but I wasn't going to risk life and limb to retrieve it.I snapped these pictures as we were driving home. Entering Davis County is like driving into a war zone. No one had power in Bountiful, businesses and homes were dark. Signs were blow to pieces all over the place and on the freeway. A semi was on it's side in the Lowe's parking lot. There are downed pine trees everywhere, debris, garbage cans, etc. Had our house not been so dang cold, I would have driven around taking pictures of all the damage. Although pictures don't do the "war zone" justice. Since our house was in the 50s when we got home, we decided to not bother anyone and just go to a hotel. We picked one with a water park inside and had fun swimming instead of freezing and listening to the wind. I'm so grateful no one was hurt and that our house wasn't damaged. There are so many families who have a huge disaster on their hands. We've just got a ton of yard work to do.

Are you there?

Where have all my bloggy friends gone? Vacations to a tropical island paradise? Shopping spree of grand proportions? Sick of my posts... they're too boring right? Not enough funny behind them? Not enough ranting and raving and drama? Or have you just plain dropped off the face of the Internet world?

I hope the first.