Surviving the Storm

Well, we just experienced probably the worst storm I've ever been in last night and lived to tell about it. Luckily Norah was asleep and, amazingly, never woke up. It showed up around 9pm last night and brought with it torrential rains and unbelievable winds. It was raining so hard you really couldn't even see the neighbors house across the street. Then, almost instantly, the winds came. The reports are that winds topped out around 78mph in NW Rochester, and I believe it. The rain was going straight sideways... thats when we decided to head to the basemment ASAP.

We didn't sustain any house damage that I can see, which is amazing. There are numerous trees in our neighborhood that snapped like toothpicks, the biggest one was probably about 10" in diameter. We did loose the canopy on our deck though. The wind was so strong it snapped the 4 straps holding it down and tossed if off the upper deck. When we assessed the damage this morning there was no chance for a recovery. I pronounced it dead at the scene.

At about 10pm I headed over to the Kelm househould to help out. They faired much worse. All the front windows were blown out, and a couple in the back as well. Not to mention their garage door now looks like a fruit roll-up. It was incredible the damage in their neighborhood. The house behind them was missing its roof!!! From the looks of the soffet in front, their roof was closing to getting ripped off as well.

I already took the canopy off, but here's one leg.

Side view, with canopy laying in the back.

Where it came from and where it ended up.

RIP beloved canopy (2008-2010), you served us well.

Tilt your head 90 degrees left to see the 3 branches destroyed on our neighbors tree.

Wide angle view of the huge branch that snapped off this huge oak.