It's Me It's Me, A Blogwright

Seems August for the last three or so years should be also named in that poem about the months. Mine is like:


April Showers bring
June Flowers
July fireworks mimic
August electrical and tornadic storms


So, it doesn't rhyme; but it is true. Some time in August it happens for the past three years. Maybe we should get a generator. This August is happened yesterday.

Yesterday night, I was in my basement and heard a strange wind. Upon looking out my back door, the sky was a strange color and the rain was pelting down. I opened the door to amazing wind power. Viewing the "smoke" coming from my right and now suddenly encompassing my yard as if the world was on fire and my door being forced shut -- I rallied up my sleeping husband and son, got my other two children and herded everyone in the basement.

The house was shaking! The world was full of thundering booms and lightning flashes; the tornado siren was blasting, ambulances were shrieking. Power went out and we were all sitting in the dark basement with two flashlights and radios and batteries for them. We turned on our NOA radio to find out a tornadic storm front was going through the area -- there were storm warnings, tornado warnings, hail warnings, high wind warnings, flood warnings, severe weather warnings all being announced -- then everything got cut off to the announcement to stay indoors a tornado had been spotted and was setting down in Griffith. Griffith is the town next to us! We peaked out a side door that was not windward, a car was being pushed down the street opposite to the direction it wanted to go! Trees were madly swaying.

We waited in the basement until visibility was better, the wind died down, and we saw other neighbors going out. Trees were down, parts of trees were down, leaves were everywhere. Garbage bins (thank goodness they were empty in our part of town since it was pickup day), recycle bins, were all blown away. Things in the yard were blown about. Many fences were down or smashed by trees. Roads were blocked and alleys were blocked. Huge trees were exploded by lightning. The rain was much less, but the lightning was still going strong as was the thunder. Boom, boom! The entire night and into the early morning. The lightning illuminated everything as bright as day.

Parts of town were flooded. Car were smashed by trees. Sirens were going on all night along with the deep hums of power generators. Yet, there was an amazing amount of traffic! A lot of traffic was detouring on our street as a huge tree was blocking the four-lane main street near us. I helped direct some traffic to go through the alley since an enormous tree was blocking the street and if the lightning wasn't flashing at that moment, it was dark with no streetlights or man-made lighting of any kind, so people couldn't really see what was up ahead. When I got cold, I went to sit on my porch because I was worried about Spee, Panda and KT.

My three children took off in this dismal weather to see how high the creek was and what other damage was afoot. Armed with their camera and cell phones, to take photos for their friends who were calling up to say "Take pictures", my kids walked without umbrellas so they wouldn't attract the lightning and came home all wet and shocked by the devastation that happened so quickly!

Today, we went out and raked up the mess, collected branches and put everything in a pile. We straightened out our yard. We swept, we mowed the front lawn, we swept the street. The children did great in this hot, humid weather.

My street didn't get it as badly as other streets but one of my neighbors, her backyard tree uprooted and tore out her driveway and whole yard! It fell on her house. I feel badly for people who are not home, as their homes have trees on them still and it is obvious who is not home as their property is still in states of disarray; when they come home, they will be shocked! This storm was the worse of the three years.

Perhaps it is because the temperature varies so much from daytime to nighttime. I enjoy cooler nights.
The Discovery Channel says that the world was in a period of unusually calm weather since the evolution of mankind and is now returning to its more prevalent wildness. Some scientists blame it on pollution -- but the geologic record is there. I tend to believe the geologic record, really, since humandkind are so small and the Earth is so big, how self-aggrandising that some humankind think humans are so important and mighty that humankind can affect nature! My children were amazed at the power of nature.

The towns around here look like war zones. My family and I can really more readily sympathise with the Katrina survivors. One day without electricity, we had to worry about our food going bad in the fridge; we have to boil our water. We didn't want to cook indoors as the house would have gotten warmer and it was hot and humid outdoors -- we didn't want it to be indoors, too. The restaurants we usually go to when we don't want to cook were closed for lack of power as were the supermarkets. We all found a sunny place indoors to read a book. Poor NO, they had so much more suffering and lack of everything! Still, they are not all together yet. My children were amazed that lack of electricity meant so many things didn't work; being in college and highschool and being home when this happened, (they don't remember the other years since we were all working at places and doing things out of the house so the lack of electricity didn't have a chance to register), they realized how much they like their comforts. We were glad our grill was okay.

Poor Griffith! They really got it bad! Only one person died throughout this whole debacle, and one person sprained an ankle; those are good numbers.

I am glad it is quiet tonight.

Oh, now I have to consider insurance. My dad says that people think they are insured if they have "house insurance"; he found out that the poor people in NO thought that, too, but found they weren't covered because they didn't have "hurricane insurance". Do I have tornado or severe weather insurance? Is there such a thing? Why wouldn't house insurance cover damage done by nature? Doesn't that stink???? I know there is "flood insurance" as the television has commercials about remembering to get such a thing. Teddy will find out.

A good thing is: My new phone came today, so I am connected with everyone again. Yay!
Another good thing is we are all safe and well and our property is fine -- except my garage siding came undone as it did before! Brand-new and this one part is defective I guess? I hope to get it fixed. I called up. Does the heat do this? It is not supposed to buckle. Grrrr!!!

Thank you, Creator, for keeping my family safe.

Later!