One Powerful Storm!
We got hit with one incredible storm last night. It started around 8pm or so, with just some dark clouds, and a bit of lightning and thunder. Nothing much, just a normal ho-hum summer thunderstorm. Then things got bad, fast...
I had seen the dark clouds and heard the thunder, so I hustled things that I couldn't leave outdoors back into the shop. Trixstir called me a couple minutes later (using a cordless phone) to ask if I could come help at the bowling-alley. Turns out that a "small party" for about 10 people turned out to be a huge party for an entire rig-crew! We were quickly running out of change and beer, so I hopped in the truck to see if the liquor store was still open - It wasn't; It had closed 15 minutes earlier. I headed to my shop to see about getting some 5s and 10s for change, but by the time I got there the light rain that had started falling had become a torrential downpour.
I sent Trixstir a text saying I was going to stay put until the rain let up, but it wound up getting worse instead of better! The wind picked up, and the rain was coming down in sheets so thick that you couldn't see more than 50' ahead! I started to get worried when the truck started rocking, and I began to wonder if there was a tornado sneaking up behind me or something. The wind blew the lid off the neighbour's dumpster, and was so powerful that it pushed a couple of my U-Haul trailers around! My street began to flood, though it only came up a few inches; Downtown, the street flooded waist-deep!
My street was littered with broken branches, but that was nothing compared to the devastation further into the town's core, where whole trees toppled onto peoples' homes and vehicles. The downpour lasted about 45 minutes, after which I was finally able to get back to the bowling alley and see how things were going there. The party was still in full swing, with a bunch of drunken rig-workers having a good time. I was not having a good time, and was very worried about flooding in the back since the sump-pumps that had been promised over three months ago had still not been installed. My fears were realized when I went to the back and found it under more than an inch of water.
There was nothing else to do but break out the shop-vac and try vainly to suck the water out and dump it outside. The Kidling was nowhere to be found, but I managed to reach him on his cell-phone; He had gone to a meeting at work at 6pm, and it was now after 9pm. He had never mentioned the fact that the meeting was to work on a float for the town's parade coming up. I told him that he'd have to tell everyone that he was sorry, but there was flooding at the bowling-alley and he had to go and help. His boss had already left to deal with flooding and a toppled tree at his own home. By then the rain had mostly stopped, and with the Kidling's help things got a little better. There had been (industrial) carpeting in the back, but after so many floods it wasn't adhering to the floor properly anymore, and I finally said to heck with it, and tore it all out. Water-logged carpets hold a lot of water, and tend to be very heavy. With the carpets out, it was easier to see where the water was, and thus easier to remove it.
We had worked out a system last year of sucking up as much water as the shop-vac could hold, then using a small sump-pump to drain it. The problem is that the pump we had could only drain water down to about 1"; If it had been one of the better types that could take water down to 1/8" or so, I'd have put it directly on the floor and made it do most of the work. As it was, this was the best we could do, and it took us a few hours to clean it all out. In the meantime, our guests were still playing and we had to be a little extra careful working in the flooded area with moving machinery. :/
Eventually, they all went home and we were able to finish cleaning up the mess in the back. It was past 1am by the time we finished, and I headed out to the farm ahead of Trixstir and the kids, who stayed behind to close up and cash-out. We had stopped to catch our breath after the guests left, and had a quick peek at Facebook posts from our friends. They confirmed that there actually had been a tornado just west of town, which certainly explained a lot. What worried me was that the tornado was reported to be heading SE at a speed of about 20km/hr. That put it on a direct path to the farm!
I headed out, fearing the worst and hoping for the best. On the way, I passed a SaskPower crew that was working on the power-lines - One of the poles had been snapped like a tooth-pick, and they were working on rigging up a temporary solution to restore power (keeping in mind it was past 1am now.) Of course, the farm was dark when I arrived, having no power due to the downed lines. The SaskPower crew must have been working fast though, because the power came back on only a couple of minutes later! Amazingly enough, despite the destruction only a couple miles up the road, not a single thing was out of place at the farm! No damage, nothing moved, all the animals safe (and hungry.) I should point out that although it was no longer raining in the area, we got about an inch of rain in that 45 minutes, and in town they recorded about 2.5 inches! There was still a lot of lightning to the South-East, but nothing around us.
Trixstir and the kids arrived about 10 minutes later, and we all headed into the house and to bed. It was 2am by the time I crawled into bed, only to be awoken again at 4am by more lightning and thunder booming outside. It was all I could do to stay awake at the shop today, and in fact I'm still here (at 10pm) writing this entry. I didn't get much of any mechanical work done, though I did get some paper work taken care of, sold a number of smaller items, and had a few customers come in and pay for their machines. My backlog is slowly clearing out, and my bank-accounts are slowly rising. At least, until the bills for the inventory come due later this month, at which time all those nice big numbers are going to vanish in an instant. :/
As it turned out, the Bowling Alley had a great night, in spite of the flooding. Oil-riggers, particularly once the booze is flowing, tend to spend a lot, and tip a lot. We brought in well over $700, which means that the gas-bill and town taxes are covered for this month. With any luck we'll get enough by the end of the month to cover the rest of the bills.
I had seen the dark clouds and heard the thunder, so I hustled things that I couldn't leave outdoors back into the shop. Trixstir called me a couple minutes later (using a cordless phone) to ask if I could come help at the bowling-alley. Turns out that a "small party" for about 10 people turned out to be a huge party for an entire rig-crew! We were quickly running out of change and beer, so I hopped in the truck to see if the liquor store was still open - It wasn't; It had closed 15 minutes earlier. I headed to my shop to see about getting some 5s and 10s for change, but by the time I got there the light rain that had started falling had become a torrential downpour.
I sent Trixstir a text saying I was going to stay put until the rain let up, but it wound up getting worse instead of better! The wind picked up, and the rain was coming down in sheets so thick that you couldn't see more than 50' ahead! I started to get worried when the truck started rocking, and I began to wonder if there was a tornado sneaking up behind me or something. The wind blew the lid off the neighbour's dumpster, and was so powerful that it pushed a couple of my U-Haul trailers around! My street began to flood, though it only came up a few inches; Downtown, the street flooded waist-deep!
My street was littered with broken branches, but that was nothing compared to the devastation further into the town's core, where whole trees toppled onto peoples' homes and vehicles. The downpour lasted about 45 minutes, after which I was finally able to get back to the bowling alley and see how things were going there. The party was still in full swing, with a bunch of drunken rig-workers having a good time. I was not having a good time, and was very worried about flooding in the back since the sump-pumps that had been promised over three months ago had still not been installed. My fears were realized when I went to the back and found it under more than an inch of water.
There was nothing else to do but break out the shop-vac and try vainly to suck the water out and dump it outside. The Kidling was nowhere to be found, but I managed to reach him on his cell-phone; He had gone to a meeting at work at 6pm, and it was now after 9pm. He had never mentioned the fact that the meeting was to work on a float for the town's parade coming up. I told him that he'd have to tell everyone that he was sorry, but there was flooding at the bowling-alley and he had to go and help. His boss had already left to deal with flooding and a toppled tree at his own home. By then the rain had mostly stopped, and with the Kidling's help things got a little better. There had been (industrial) carpeting in the back, but after so many floods it wasn't adhering to the floor properly anymore, and I finally said to heck with it, and tore it all out. Water-logged carpets hold a lot of water, and tend to be very heavy. With the carpets out, it was easier to see where the water was, and thus easier to remove it.
We had worked out a system last year of sucking up as much water as the shop-vac could hold, then using a small sump-pump to drain it. The problem is that the pump we had could only drain water down to about 1"; If it had been one of the better types that could take water down to 1/8" or so, I'd have put it directly on the floor and made it do most of the work. As it was, this was the best we could do, and it took us a few hours to clean it all out. In the meantime, our guests were still playing and we had to be a little extra careful working in the flooded area with moving machinery. :/
Eventually, they all went home and we were able to finish cleaning up the mess in the back. It was past 1am by the time we finished, and I headed out to the farm ahead of Trixstir and the kids, who stayed behind to close up and cash-out. We had stopped to catch our breath after the guests left, and had a quick peek at Facebook posts from our friends. They confirmed that there actually had been a tornado just west of town, which certainly explained a lot. What worried me was that the tornado was reported to be heading SE at a speed of about 20km/hr. That put it on a direct path to the farm!
I headed out, fearing the worst and hoping for the best. On the way, I passed a SaskPower crew that was working on the power-lines - One of the poles had been snapped like a tooth-pick, and they were working on rigging up a temporary solution to restore power (keeping in mind it was past 1am now.) Of course, the farm was dark when I arrived, having no power due to the downed lines. The SaskPower crew must have been working fast though, because the power came back on only a couple of minutes later! Amazingly enough, despite the destruction only a couple miles up the road, not a single thing was out of place at the farm! No damage, nothing moved, all the animals safe (and hungry.) I should point out that although it was no longer raining in the area, we got about an inch of rain in that 45 minutes, and in town they recorded about 2.5 inches! There was still a lot of lightning to the South-East, but nothing around us.
Trixstir and the kids arrived about 10 minutes later, and we all headed into the house and to bed. It was 2am by the time I crawled into bed, only to be awoken again at 4am by more lightning and thunder booming outside. It was all I could do to stay awake at the shop today, and in fact I'm still here (at 10pm) writing this entry. I didn't get much of any mechanical work done, though I did get some paper work taken care of, sold a number of smaller items, and had a few customers come in and pay for their machines. My backlog is slowly clearing out, and my bank-accounts are slowly rising. At least, until the bills for the inventory come due later this month, at which time all those nice big numbers are going to vanish in an instant. :/
As it turned out, the Bowling Alley had a great night, in spite of the flooding. Oil-riggers, particularly once the booze is flowing, tend to spend a lot, and tip a lot. We brought in well over $700, which means that the gas-bill and town taxes are covered for this month. With any luck we'll get enough by the end of the month to cover the rest of the bills.