The Tornado of 2010

Perhaps a meterologist wouldn't officially classify it as a tornado, but for all intensive purposes, whatever we experienced...was!

Last month a terrible driving wind and rain suddenly plowed over my house, sending Macy and I to a dark basement to huddle together in a corner, both of us shivering out of fear while I prayed the Rosary.

The storm came with ferocious and noisy intensity, snapping in half one of my giant trees, plunging to its death an air conditioner from the window of my garage, and breaking the ridge vent on my house roof.  The storm tore off shingles, shattered my cement statue of Our Lady, and left my yard absolutely covered in debris.

My grill had skidded across my deck, my trash cans had toppled and spilled in the yard, and the size and quantity of tree branches in my yard were staggering.

I am glad we put our band and practice space (my garage) under the patronage of St. Philomena, for we experienced this storm just a few days after I hung a large poster of her up in the rafters.  Amazingly, when that air conditioner flew out of the window, it did not break the glass.  And incredibly, we had no water damage to any of our equipment.  Thank you, St. Philomena!

My neighbors (who each have garage-like sheds in their backyards) were not so lucky.  Three sheds had massive trees land on them.  One tree fell onto the road, blocking it for hours and taking down with it telephone lines.

But the worst was experienced by a house just four down from mine.  A massive maple tree in their backyard was uprooted and crash-landed onto their house, thrusting its leafy branches through their ceiling and onto their dining room table, bringing with it buckets of gushing rainwater.

Fortunately, no one on my block was hurt.  But we were the sight to see by the rest of the neighborhood who had taken to walking, once the sky had cleared.  The line of destruction was specific and marked a path directly through our town.

Cleanup was a cooperative effort in the days that followed.  I was touched by the outpouring of assistance.

Strangers helped me clean up my yard.  All of us watched and clapped when a giant crane lifted the giant maple tree off of my neighbor's house, twirling it a few times in the air before finally laying it on the ground.

And we clapped again when the road was cleared and when the telephone and  electricity went back on, which was about 8 hours later.

What a scary, scary day.  Thank you, Jesus, for keeping us safe.

Here are pictures of my property and my neighbors' properties.  Can you see the car that was crushed by a fallen tree?  The size of the tree is so big that you almost cannot see the car!

All those orange trucks you see lined up on the road is right next to my property!  What an impressive army of repair people that came the next day!