After the Storm

This is what our swingset looked like just a few short weeks ago.

On Thursday morning I woke up to see the slide and the teeter totter had blown off. I was so sad. Little did I know what was yet to come. Later that moring this is what it looked like.

On Thanksgiving I asked the kids what they were most thankful for. Makenzie said, "Thanks for building our clubhouse, Daddy. That's what I'm thankful for." (They called the top part of the swingset their clubhouse.) I thought they would be devestated to see what happened and start crying. They were actually in awe of the destruction. But Andy & I were both heartbroken.

The hurricane force winds also caused a lot of damage to the trees in my brother's yard. My brother, Brian, called me early in the morning to tell me that the wind had blown a street light off the post at the corner of our street. The live wires were hitting the chain link fence that runs up the side of his yard to to the corner of our property and keeps on going right to the side of our house, causing arcs of electricity and power surges.

Right after that, a tree fell on his house. Andy and my Dad went over there to help him get it off before it went through his roof. What they didn't realize was that another tree had been uprooted but was being held upright by the tree Brian was cutting with the chainsaw. When he made it through that branch, the second tree fell and hit him while the chainsaw was still going. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Andy said he could feel the wind trying to pull his contacts out and it was like trying to dodge bullets with all of the pinecones and other debris flying around.

 Every few minutes another tree went down. Along his driveway. . . .

 . . .by the road. This is one of the largest that went down. I would guess it was at least 60 feet tall.

Two more along the road went down as well. Just like dominoes.

 This is the view from my parent's house, which is directly on the other side of Brian's house.

A total of nine trees were uprooted and another four snapped in half. We were all very sad to see the trees fall down. My Grandpa Mildon planted those trees when he built the house in the 1950's. My dad has many fond  memories of those trees, as do we. Having campouts, playing in the irrigation under them, losing countless softballs and birdies up in the branches and trying to get them down. My kids loved going exploring through them and making up different adventures. I wish I had a "before" picture to show you this house. It was so secluded and beautiful.

The house on the other side of my parent's yard sustained some damage as well. A large tree branch fell and crashed through their awning and tore off some of the soffit. Did I mention the home is for sale? So much for curb appeal. Fortunately, no one was hurt when this fell either.

What a wild wind storm!