Huge Storm Last Night

Life just got a little bit more complicated.
 
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fjzgln54lhrcmgh/AAC_bi8eDBLmEfNXweF2g7DWa?dl=0  (if asked to log in to Dropbox, just click the X; it's a public folder).
 

Why couldn’t have it blown to the south? Our deck is in desperate need of being replaced; having a tree take it out during an “act of God” would have made life easier, rather than harder.  <sigh>  However, we got lucky, as no structures or cars were damaged ... for us, that is.  There are trees down all over town, some on cars and houses.  RVs were flipped over at at least one local campground.

Crazy!  Glad it didn't so any serious damage to your place.

Man, looks like the tree just barely missed the deck!  Glad to see you house is ok, as well as your family.

I'm glad you're alright.

Staybrite wrote:

Man, looks like the tree just barely missed the deck!  Glad to see you house is ok, as well as your family.

Just missed the neighbor's deck, which is good.  Completely missed our deck, which is not so good. 

BearDad wrote:

Staybrite wrote:

Man, looks like the tree just barely missed the deck!  Glad to see you house is ok, as well as your family.

Just missed the neighbor's deck, which is good.  Completely missed our deck, which is not so good. 

Glad you are all OK.

So,how was the experience of it last night?

We were woken by a huge crack of thunder, and about two minutes later heard the town sirens going off. We thought they might be tornado, so we brought are daughter and pets downstairs. I then stood at the back window and watched for about 15 minutes, and the entire time the thunder and lightning didn't quit. I also looked out the front and could see that our street, which is on a hill, was a river. There was so much water it came up over the boulevard and to the sidewalk, about four feet in from the curb.

What sickened me looking out my back window is that I could see my tarps getting blown off of my shed foundation, exposing the particle board flooring, so even when it started to settle down and I went back to bed I couldn't go back to sleep for thinking about having to redo it. I didn't even know the tree went down, as you can see it from anywhere inside the house. But when I went out in the morning to check on my shed-in-progress I saw the tree.

The news said we had "straight winds" at 85+ mph. There were trees uprooted all over town because we have had so much rain lately, make the ground a soggy mess. There were some streets completely blocked off with fallen trees, and we saw one house that had two huge evergreens, probably about two feet in diameter, completely uprooted. Fortunately for them both trees fell away from the house.

I spent three hours with my chainsaw this evening, and I'm only 1/2-way done! We made two trips to the tree dump with my truck, and the entire boulevard between our sidewalk and the street is a wall of branches. We heard the city is sending trucks around to pick them up; if they don't I'll be making many more trips to the tree dumb.