Farmageddington- The Big Storm

December 1st we woke up around 2:30 a.m. to the sounds of strong, big winds.  Shingles, siding, branches, garbage, and all sorts of stuff were blowing around the neighborhood.  I slept/snoozed through the next 4 hours, occasionally getting up to check the damage outside.  It was CRAZY and scary!  

Around 4:00, Marion got ready and went into work, because he was wide awake. :)  

Around 6:30 I got up, showered, and made some pumpkin chocolate chip bread.  I'd been craving it and the thawed pumpkin in the fridge needed to be used.  Then the kids woke up and we watched the wind and worried.  I made them all get dressed and have their shoes and socks on in case we needed to leave in a rush -- it was that intense!  Still, the winds blew, the shingles flew, with no end in sight.

The power went off just as the pumpkin bread finished baking.  What luck!  The kids and I had a wonderful basement picnic breakfast, because I was afraid of being in the dining room with the windows.  It was dark and cold, but yummy too.  And, for the kids, any excuse to pull out the flashlights is a holiday!

With the house getting colder, we considered leaving.  It wasn't blowing as hard at Rodger and Michelle's, so we decided to go there when Marion got home, around 11.   We loaded up the kids and got on the road, only to decide that it might just be safer in our basement!  

Semis had tipped over, parts of I15 were closed down, debris was still blowing around.  As we drove through Farmington and saw all the damage that had been done and was still being done, we decided to go home.  We were blown away (ha, ha! get it?) by the huge pine trees that had blown over taking sidewalks, driveways, and power lines with them.  Root systems the size of a garage door were perpendicular to the ground, lifting the whole layer of grass with them.

Finally, around 2 pm, the storm settled down.  We got outside and assessed the damage.  The aluminum shingles on the west side of the roof had pretty much blown off, and some of the asphalt shingles underneath.  The east side was surprisingly fine.  Weird.  We also lost most of the siding off the north side.  Another weird thing, and maybe one of the worst sounds I've ever heard.  To hear the siding RIP off of my home and be able to do nothing about it was horrible.   The last big thing was the hold in the soffit that the dishnetwork dish had ripped after it banged against the house for an hour and ripped off.  Another horrible noise that I couldn't do anything about!  Later, woodpeckers discovered the hole and enjoyed the hornets' nests inside. :)

We felt lucky that our trees hadn't blown down, and that we had (with the help of a chain-saw-loving home teacher!) cut down the dead one last summer.  It surely would have blown over, causing lots of damage.

Anyway, the winds were hurricane level, and I believe it!  It was scary.  It made me think about how unprepared I was for pretty much any situation.  Our 72 hour kids were in a storage that has outside access, so I couldn't really get them safely.  We have very little water stored, not many candles, and I'm not a good cook without electricity. (Marion might say I'm not a very good cook WITH electricity!!!) (No, he wouldn't say that, though he might think it!)

Since, we have had a new roof put on, and they finished the siding yesterday.  We recycled the aluminum shingles, a job that made the boys more money than they know what to do with!  We hope a storm like that doesn't happen again too soon!