Snapshots: Storm Damage

Last night at 8 p.m., just as I was getting the kids ready for bed and they were already in their pajamas, two things happened at once: Our cell phones started screaming to alert us of a dangerous storm coming our way, and we saw out the window that the sheep had gotten out.

Swell.

Luckily, the sheep were on the road right next to the gate to our closest pasture, so we drove them in there and secured them relatively quickly. And then we went to the old gym.

This alert had confirmed a tornado associated with this storm, along with large hail and high winds, so we thought it prudent to wait it out in a large stone structure. We drove the Honda up to the old gym, went inside, and waited.

It was pretty much dark by this point, but I had brought a solar lantern with us, so the kids used that to make shadow puppets.At least, they made shadow puppets while we were waiting for the storm to hit. When the storm actually hit, they were doing nothing but huddling and praying.

Never have I heard such a noise. The gym has a metal roof. Hail hitting it at that speed and in that quantity makes a sound that I imagine is akin to a gun battle. It was so loud we couldn't hear each other yelling from a foot away.

This was not popular with the small children in our group, as you might imagine. 

Investigation revealed hail about the size of a golf ball.

The alert had warned of hail up to 3 inches, so I guess it could have been worse. But still. Yikes.

As soon as the hail was over, we braved the 30-foot dash to the car, getting completely soaked in the process and discovering when we got there that the back side window of the Honda had been broken out, and there were several cracks in the windshield.

I managed to get us home, though, where we dashed through the soaking rain again and reached the sanctuary of the house . . . only to find that the hail had broken out four of the five windows on the north side of the house.

There was water and broken glass all over the floor of the kitchen, dining room, and my bedroom. It was an unbelievable mess. And of course, the power was out, so all we had were the lanterns for light.

I got the kids to put on dry pajamas while we taped trash bags over the smashed windows. I started sweeping up shards of glass and water and dumping the mess in buckets as well as I could in the limited light I had after they went to bed.

The little kids went to sleep, but Cubby went out to check on the sheep making a racket in the adjoining pasture and came back in with the news that the horses were out.

Thankfully, they were just in the vineyard pasture next to their corral. Investigation revealed that a section of fence had blown over in the storm, so they just walked out. We put the fence back up as best we could and lured the horses back into their corral with some horse food we have.

After that, I went back in to continue cleaning up as much as I was able. I also brought the food in the small freezer above the refrigerator to the giant chest freezer, got a bag of ice out of that freezer while I had it open, and put all the most perishable refrigerated things into coolers with the ice. 

Then I plugged in our landline phone and went to bed, first taking the precaution of putting on socks to sleep in in case I was startled awake and jumped out of bed and right into the shards of glass embedded in my bedroom carpet.

That is exactly what happened when the power came back on at 4:30, so thank goodness for socks.

The rising sun enabled me to make a tour of the destruction outside.

Boards missing in the backyard fence.

Half the horse shed roof peeled up.

And of course, the windows.

The garden, as you might imagine, did not fare well.

Rhubarb.

Tomato.

Beets.

So that's kind of sad.

But!

No one was injured, our roof didn't leak, all the animals are okay, and the power is back on so I can clean up properly.

There you have it. My storm-damaged life, snapshotted.