Thursday evening we sheltered in the laundry room as the tornado sirens blew. Lisa sent us this meme as we waited out the storm.
Boy howdy, we needed the laugh. It got pretty intense around here.
We were hunkered down with the dogs, watching the live storm updates as we did. Our lights flickered many, many times and at one point we heard some loud banging and popping coming from outside.
Florida Boi Tammo has gone through several hurricanes and he does not like storms. He lay on the floor, cuddled up to Pepper, and shook. I took my sweater off and wrapped it around him. Still, he shook.
Lisa also heads to her laundry room when the tornado sirens blow.
Not gonna lie - I get the same urge!
After a half hour and with two rounds of storms having passed over us, we went outside to take a peek - what had caused the banging and popping we had heard?
The patio was a mess. And some things were missing. The lid to the fire pit. The patio carpet. Neither were in sight. We decided to wait until morning when it was light and we could assess the damage better.
A partial explanation may have been found in a report the next morning by our local meteorologist, Chad Evans although we didn't realize it at the time.
As we investigated Friday morning, we discovered "narrow enhanced damage." We were a mess, and Nan's patio had damage and some things broken, but the other homes around us had no damage.
In the early morning light we spied the top of the fire pit out in the yard and retrieved it.
The patio table had also been tossed out into the yard and all the chairs were overturned and scattered.
Nan's chairs were also overturned
and she had an odd and very defined trail of leaves scattered across her back yard. Never seen anything like that. (It's hard to see in the photo, but it's like there is an invisible rectangle stretching across her yard with torn off leaves inside its boundaries.)
Even stranger was where I finally found the patio carpet.
It had been blown off the patio and then thrown around the corner of the house. Quite a trip for a heavy carpet which had been made even heavier by the rain.
We had power, but had lost our internet during the storm (as did most of the town.) It was not restored until Friday afternoon. I couldn't write or even post a Gone Riding note. (Sorry!)
The damage was quite bad in the counties next to us and north of us.
And this monster tornado plowed through Wanatah, also north of us.
As for us, I am grateful we are okay and my town did not sustain much damage. But...
Chad says there were 60-80 mph winds here, and that there are "areas of narrow enhanced damage" and that the NWS is investigating to determine if those were caused by "straight line wind or spin-ups of an EF0-EF1" tornado."
As I think about the isolated damage in our yard and Nan's, the odd pattern of downed leaves in such a narrow, focused pattern strewn across her back yard, I wonder if we experienced a straight line wind. But then, what about the carpet? It was already heavy when dry, and even heavier when it is rain soaked. It got picked up and deposited around the other side of the house.
Kyle suggestion as to how the carpet ended up where it was.
I considered adding my report to those that Chad is collecting as he investigates, but decided in the end to let it be. Clearly something odd happened, and I have my own guess as to what it was. And that is enough for me.
There may be a second post of the day if I can get to it. Regardless, stay 'tooned!
When you didn't post yesterday, I figured you were without power. I'm relieved to hear the damage was minimal (but also blogworthy!).
ReplyDeleteI honestly thought you didn't post as you were too choked up over the loss of Nacho. I never thought about weather reasons. Glad you didn't sustain any major damage, injuries or issues.
ReplyDeleteOh those grain bins! We had some big winds last Wednesday and there was much tree carnage everywhere. Happy to know you were mostly unscathed!
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