Tornado Thursday
It's been a week since the tornado hit, and we're still dealing with the after-effects.
Personally, I didn't even know the tornado had hit until my parents' renter called, and said that the tornado had hit their rental property, which can best be described as 80 acres of forest, with a cabin, woodshed and pole barn in the lower left-hand corner.
We had heard that there was a tornado warning in the county, and there had been the mother of all storms outside, but we hadn't heard anything resembling a tornado. Then the renter, Mike, called, and revealed that a tornado had leveled the property, which was extremely bad. Recall that there were 80 acres of forest, which means that a ton of trees had probably damaged the cabin beyond all repair, not to mention the pole barn, which is where a LOT of my stuff was located, which would be more or less disasterous.
We got a sense of how destructive the tornado was when we tried to drive there, and found it was literally impassable. Eventually we decided to try to walk there, and we climbed over a tree, then climbed through another tree. As in, it was big enough that walking over it would have been impossible. What stopped us was that the third tree had a trunk as tall as I was, about six feet, and was lying across the road. We couldn't see where it began, and where the trunk branched out was pretty impassable. I was persuaded to go back, which was good. Mainly because
there was a live power line down, and if I'd actually done that in the dark, I would have likely been electrocuted. Definitely not one of my smarter ideas.
The next day was a eye-opener. The road commission had been out the previous night, cutting trees and dragging them off the road for the police and fire department. (I listened to them on my hand-powered emergency radio, which can also apparently pick up shortwave transmissions. It may be one of the best purchases I have ever made.) When we drove down the next day, I could barely recognize the place. It had been transformed from a heavily forested area, filled with oaks and ash easily fifty yards high into what could only be described as a clearcut. We literally climbed over huge logs, trying to make our way to the cabin, which was miraculously still standing. So was the pole barn! For that matter, even Mike's dog, which had been left out, was unharmed! Let me tell you, I can try to explain this away as luck, but with all the trees that fell, and how bad it could have been...let's just say my belief in God has been recharged.
Anyway, that's been the defining moment of the past week. I didn't think I was going to write about it initially, but I finally decided I needed to write, let people know what had happened. I'm fine now, and I will say that now we have free firewood for literally life, which is a nice benefit.
Chris
Personally, I didn't even know the tornado had hit until my parents' renter called, and said that the tornado had hit their rental property, which can best be described as 80 acres of forest, with a cabin, woodshed and pole barn in the lower left-hand corner.
We had heard that there was a tornado warning in the county, and there had been the mother of all storms outside, but we hadn't heard anything resembling a tornado. Then the renter, Mike, called, and revealed that a tornado had leveled the property, which was extremely bad. Recall that there were 80 acres of forest, which means that a ton of trees had probably damaged the cabin beyond all repair, not to mention the pole barn, which is where a LOT of my stuff was located, which would be more or less disasterous.
We got a sense of how destructive the tornado was when we tried to drive there, and found it was literally impassable. Eventually we decided to try to walk there, and we climbed over a tree, then climbed through another tree. As in, it was big enough that walking over it would have been impossible. What stopped us was that the third tree had a trunk as tall as I was, about six feet, and was lying across the road. We couldn't see where it began, and where the trunk branched out was pretty impassable. I was persuaded to go back, which was good. Mainly because
there was a live power line down, and if I'd actually done that in the dark, I would have likely been electrocuted. Definitely not one of my smarter ideas.
The next day was a eye-opener. The road commission had been out the previous night, cutting trees and dragging them off the road for the police and fire department. (I listened to them on my hand-powered emergency radio, which can also apparently pick up shortwave transmissions. It may be one of the best purchases I have ever made.) When we drove down the next day, I could barely recognize the place. It had been transformed from a heavily forested area, filled with oaks and ash easily fifty yards high into what could only be described as a clearcut. We literally climbed over huge logs, trying to make our way to the cabin, which was miraculously still standing. So was the pole barn! For that matter, even Mike's dog, which had been left out, was unharmed! Let me tell you, I can try to explain this away as luck, but with all the trees that fell, and how bad it could have been...let's just say my belief in God has been recharged.
Anyway, that's been the defining moment of the past week. I didn't think I was going to write about it initially, but I finally decided I needed to write, let people know what had happened. I'm fine now, and I will say that now we have free firewood for literally life, which is a nice benefit.
Chris