I waited a few minutes and curiosity took control. I went up stairs and the storm was still pounding us but the winds were within the norm. Looking into the back yard I could see that we had lost a number of trees. 5 in all. The maple was amazing because it has broken off about 15 feet off the ground. That was a serious wind. The alarm continued to wail. I went back in the basement. Then I thought, what about the big trees in front. Our beautiful cottonwoods, hovering more than 50 feet above our front yard. I had to run upstairs for another quick look. Devastation. The two largest cottonwoods lay on the ground taking out any other trees in their path. One broken off about 15 feet of the ground. The smallest cottonwood still stood but was greatly diminished having lost a couple major branches. The tree guy thinks it can be saved. I headed back to the basement as the alarm silenced. We all came upstairs and witnessed the damage. Wow were were lucky that nothing hit the house. Wait, what about the cars. I looked out the bathroom and saw that the portable basketball hoop had fallen on Diane's car hood. Not really damaged. A small ding and some scratches. The tornado alarm went off again. We returned to the basement and discussed what we had seen of our yard. The boys were quite scared. A neighbor kid peed his pants.
The rain began to let up and I grabbed an umbrella and headed outside. The damage was extreme. What a mess. Trees down everywhere. Power lines down everywhere. Our drop lines had been ripped from the main lines and lay on the ground. More than a dozen homes in our neighborhood had been punctured by trees. One had the roof pulled up from the house. Several cars were crushed by falling trees. Dozens and dozens of trees in the neighborhood had been broken off about 12 feet off the ground. What the heck would do that? A tornado. Our neighborhood was one of the hardest hit areas. Many fewer had fallen at the roots. The next day an army of workers descended on our neighborhood. More than 25 trucks as the cleanup and power restoration began. I bought a big generator. We are able to function pretty normally. After 2 days power returned to the neighborhood. Since we lost our drop line we are one of the few remaining houses without power. Hopefully tomorrow. The generators are working great, but burning about $50 in gas every day. Decided to bite the bullet and hire someone to clean up what had fallen and groom the few trees that remained after being damaged. What an experience and run of emotions. Crazy!
What was it? A tornado? There were a couple reports of funnel clouds seen in the area. However, they are calling it a straight wind, What the heck is a straight wind? I googled it an it is a tornado strength wind that can form at the leading edge of a storm as it pushes a cold front before it. Winds up to 100 miles per hour. The give away is that all the trees fall in a parallel manner. Thats definitely is what can be seen in our neighborhood. Tornado's leave a circular footprint. It hit us like a tornado. Straight wind, never heard of it before but I won't soon forget what it is.
UPDATE (6/27/2010). We finally got power back on Saturday afternoon. We were the last in the neighborhood to get it back after 3 days. We lost the cottonwood that had remained standing. It was to damaged to be saved. An army of tree guys descended on our yard and by Sunday afternoon our mess was cleaned up.
Here is a crappy picture from my blackberry taken right after the storm.
This looks worse than it was. More damage to the hoop than the car. Although the car will cost more to repair.
After the storm passed a big bright rainbow showed up.
The front yard looked like a war zone
The back yard didn't look much better.
One of the neighboring houses took some serious damage.
This house almost got buried. Luckily it is currently unoccupied.
Bart with a shard of the biggest cottonwood.
This is the pine I watched fall outside of our bedroom window. This shot is out that window.
Alex in what is left of the big cottonwood. It was a big tree. We will miss its shade.
The cleanup crew arrives. We could never have done it ourselves. They had 8 men and a Bobcat forklift and other heavy equipment. Still took a couple days.
The main trunk of the biggest cottonwood was in the creek. It was a monster! Moving the main trunk lifted the back end of the bobcat a foot off the ground.
One of the cottonwoods broke off about 15 feet up. Here it is being felled.
What a pile of lumber. They hauled it off in 3 dump truck loads.
A big branch falling as they start to take down the damaged standing cottonwood.
The top comes down.
The main trunk of the damage cottonwood comes down. It was masterfully done and none of the standing trees received any further damage
We were sad to lose so many trees. Especially the big ones. It will be many years before we have such tall trees in the yard. We are just so lucky that the house wasn't damaged and that no one was injured in the storm.
