Wind Storm
We had the first big storm of the season last night. It was the biggest storm in at least 10 years, judging by windspeed and the number of downed trees and power lines.
Several people were killed by falling trees, many roads were closed, and hundreds of thousands of people were without power. What we thought was lightning flashing in the sky turned out to actually be electricity flashing from downed power stations.
With all the old-growth fir trees in our neighborhood, falling branches are always a concern. The trees pictured above are in our back yard, only a few feet from our house.
After several branches hit the windows hard enough to shake the house, we closed all the curtains we could and stayed away from the windows in case one broke.
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One of the old maple trees in our next-door neighbor's yard broke in half, completely pulverizing a panel of their fence. I can't see whether the house next to that was damaged or not, but I don't think so.
The neighbor behind us had a medium-sized broadleaf tree break off and land on their house. They were out with a chainsaw earlier today, working on it. Now it's leaning from the ground to where it's propped up on a tree. You can see other loose branches lying parallel to the ground in the trees above their house.
A branch large enough that neither DH nor I can lift it fell across our backyard bench, but didn't break it. DH estimates it's 20 feet long; I think it may be longer. It's wedged between two trees, so we'll probably have to borrow a saw in order to get it out.
I'm so glad we had that maple tree that was rotten at the core taken down this summer. It would have probably ended up on our house with the way the wind was blowing last night. A few years ago, one of the fir trees in our neighborhood dropped a branch so large it penetrated a neighbor's roof and ended up in their living room.
Today we got rain, sunshine, hail and then snow.
The snowflakes were this big:
However, it was too warm out for the hail and snow to stick for long. I'm glad it didn't make the roads too hazardous. We already have enough closures due to trees and downed power lines.
Our power was only out for about 3 hours last night. My grandparents were without power for about 12 hours, starting in the early evening. Some folks in the harder-hit areas will probably be without power until sometime this weekend. It will take a long time to fix all the downed power lines and move the trees blocking roadways.
Our only apparent damage was that the trellis that broke in the last windstorm several weeks ago blew over even further, bending some of the rose bushes more than they were already bent. I hope they'll recover. I really need to get a sturdy stake and a sledgehammer and fix it. Maybe I'll be able to make a trip to the Big Fixit/Buildit-Supply Store this weekend.
We have lots of downed branches to clean up, too. Maybe I'll see if I can get a chainsaw from somewhere and cut them up for firewood. Then we can use them in the back-porch fireplace I hope to have some day. I really miss having a woodburning stove, but at least our gas fireplace still burns when the electricity is out.
Several people were killed by falling trees, many roads were closed, and hundreds of thousands of people were without power. What we thought was lightning flashing in the sky turned out to actually be electricity flashing from downed power stations.
With all the old-growth fir trees in our neighborhood, falling branches are always a concern. The trees pictured above are in our back yard, only a few feet from our house.
After several branches hit the windows hard enough to shake the house, we closed all the curtains we could and stayed away from the windows in case one broke.
###############
One of the old maple trees in our next-door neighbor's yard broke in half, completely pulverizing a panel of their fence. I can't see whether the house next to that was damaged or not, but I don't think so.
The neighbor behind us had a medium-sized broadleaf tree break off and land on their house. They were out with a chainsaw earlier today, working on it. Now it's leaning from the ground to where it's propped up on a tree. You can see other loose branches lying parallel to the ground in the trees above their house.
A branch large enough that neither DH nor I can lift it fell across our backyard bench, but didn't break it. DH estimates it's 20 feet long; I think it may be longer. It's wedged between two trees, so we'll probably have to borrow a saw in order to get it out.
I'm so glad we had that maple tree that was rotten at the core taken down this summer. It would have probably ended up on our house with the way the wind was blowing last night. A few years ago, one of the fir trees in our neighborhood dropped a branch so large it penetrated a neighbor's roof and ended up in their living room.
Today we got rain, sunshine, hail and then snow.
The snowflakes were this big:
However, it was too warm out for the hail and snow to stick for long. I'm glad it didn't make the roads too hazardous. We already have enough closures due to trees and downed power lines.
Our power was only out for about 3 hours last night. My grandparents were without power for about 12 hours, starting in the early evening. Some folks in the harder-hit areas will probably be without power until sometime this weekend. It will take a long time to fix all the downed power lines and move the trees blocking roadways.
Our only apparent damage was that the trellis that broke in the last windstorm several weeks ago blew over even further, bending some of the rose bushes more than they were already bent. I hope they'll recover. I really need to get a sturdy stake and a sledgehammer and fix it. Maybe I'll be able to make a trip to the Big Fixit/Buildit-Supply Store this weekend.
We have lots of downed branches to clean up, too. Maybe I'll see if I can get a chainsaw from somewhere and cut them up for firewood. Then we can use them in the back-porch fireplace I hope to have some day. I really miss having a woodburning stove, but at least our gas fireplace still burns when the electricity is out.
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Posted by purple_kangaroo at 8:25 PM[Permanent link]
4 Comments:
I'm so glad that you're all OK!
During the last bad storm we had, an old oak lost a massive branch and crushed one of the neighbor's outbuildings. Scary. We only have one tree large enough that it could potentially cause damage -- but it hangs right over our electrical wires. Eeek. That's one of the reasons that we wanted to install the pellet stove.
Sorry to hear of the storm but I'm glad you and your family are safe, I'm a first time reader and I wanted to say your photos are sweet. Especially your youngest grin. :)
So glad your home and family are okay after the storm.
Don't forget that evergreen wood is not appropriate for burning (it gets all tarry and sticky and gums up the chimney.)
Glad to hear everyone was okay in that windstorm we had. It was a good one wasn't it? I was working in one of our suberbs in a clinic and the power went out there practically the whole town! The whole building was pitch black and it took us a while to find flashlights I felt bad for the poor patients in the exam rooms that were really black. We have a lot of large trees in our yard that I was worried about also but mostly we had one large branch in the front yard our arborvida (sp?) look pretty messy (and our landlord is neurotic about keeping them nice) and a climbing bush in front of the house is no longer climbing, fortunatly we didn't lose power at our house though!
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