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I survived a Category 3 hurricane...kinda...
14 years ago
Well...not a real hurricane, but close enough in my mind.
Those who follow me on Twitter are likely aware of the little adventure that has been this week. Monday morning at about 5AM, an extremely strong severe thunderstorm came through. The hallmark of this storm was the wind.
Oh god, the WIND. It's been estimated that the wind blew at 130MPH, sustained, for 12 minutes.
Let me repeat that: one hundred and thirty miles per hour...for TWELVE CONTINUOUS MINUTES.
We're not talking brief downbursts or the occasional gust here. This was SUSTAINED winds of 130MPH for 12 STRAIGHT MINUTES.
130MPH...that's equal to a category 3 hurricane...just shy of category 4. For 12 minutes on Monday morning, I essentially experienced a category 3/borderline category 4 hurricane. Rarely does a storm send me to the basement. This one made me RUN to the basement. I've never, NEVER heard wind like that before in my entire life. I honestly thought it was a tornado and that the house was gonna go, especially when I started hearing stuff breaking. It was so loud, it sounded like the wind was INSIDE the house. Seriously, I have never been so scared in my whole life.
To be absolutely honest, I am genuinely surprised how little damage there is to the house after hearing that wind, and when you look at what the storm did elsewhere around here. A couple broken windows and lots of missing shingles off the roof, but the house is still structurally sound from what I can tell. The insurance guy needs to inspect it yet though, which won't be for at least another week because of how backed up they are. I also had a power line down and a broken power pole in the yard. The line has been disconnected (It goes to a building that isn't used anymore anyway), but the broken pole is...well, still broken, the wires are the only thing holding it up. The electric company will eventually fix it, but god knows when that will be, considering how busy they are fixing the lines everywhere else. I also had a panel blow out of a wooden fence, but that should be relatively simple to fix. The trees, however...they're not good. Nearly every single tree, except for the smallest ones, were either severely damaged or downed completely. They've all been cleaned up now. The yard looks totally different. It's...just crazy.
Other than how relatively little damage there was to the house, something else that greatly surprised me was just how quickly the power came back on here. I was only without power for 18 hours, which is amazing when you take into consideration the fact that almost half the town still doesn't have power yet even five days after the storm. As badly torn up as the power lines around here are...I was honestly expecting to be out for several days. So, for once, ECIREC did a good job...now if only they'd fix the broken pole in my yard. >_<
Needless to say...it looks like a war zone around here. They're estimating up to 70% of the trees in town are gone. The mayor has described it as "urban deforestation". There's also significant structural damage to many buildings in town. Some places lost parts of their roof, some lost their ENTIRE roof. Then there are SOLID BRICK BUILDINGS that had their walls blown in and collapse. Then, there's power lines down everywhere. Even now, five days later, 45% of the town still doesn't have power yet..and we're under an excessive heat warning until next Wednesday. To put it quite simply...it's bad, really bad. Looking at all the damage, you'd swear a tornado came through, it's that bad. But, they keep insisting it was just straightline winds, that there was no tornado.
So, yeah...a crazy week after a crazy storm.
Those who follow me on Twitter are likely aware of the little adventure that has been this week. Monday morning at about 5AM, an extremely strong severe thunderstorm came through. The hallmark of this storm was the wind.
Oh god, the WIND. It's been estimated that the wind blew at 130MPH, sustained, for 12 minutes.
Let me repeat that: one hundred and thirty miles per hour...for TWELVE CONTINUOUS MINUTES.
We're not talking brief downbursts or the occasional gust here. This was SUSTAINED winds of 130MPH for 12 STRAIGHT MINUTES.
130MPH...that's equal to a category 3 hurricane...just shy of category 4. For 12 minutes on Monday morning, I essentially experienced a category 3/borderline category 4 hurricane. Rarely does a storm send me to the basement. This one made me RUN to the basement. I've never, NEVER heard wind like that before in my entire life. I honestly thought it was a tornado and that the house was gonna go, especially when I started hearing stuff breaking. It was so loud, it sounded like the wind was INSIDE the house. Seriously, I have never been so scared in my whole life.
To be absolutely honest, I am genuinely surprised how little damage there is to the house after hearing that wind, and when you look at what the storm did elsewhere around here. A couple broken windows and lots of missing shingles off the roof, but the house is still structurally sound from what I can tell. The insurance guy needs to inspect it yet though, which won't be for at least another week because of how backed up they are. I also had a power line down and a broken power pole in the yard. The line has been disconnected (It goes to a building that isn't used anymore anyway), but the broken pole is...well, still broken, the wires are the only thing holding it up. The electric company will eventually fix it, but god knows when that will be, considering how busy they are fixing the lines everywhere else. I also had a panel blow out of a wooden fence, but that should be relatively simple to fix. The trees, however...they're not good. Nearly every single tree, except for the smallest ones, were either severely damaged or downed completely. They've all been cleaned up now. The yard looks totally different. It's...just crazy.
Other than how relatively little damage there was to the house, something else that greatly surprised me was just how quickly the power came back on here. I was only without power for 18 hours, which is amazing when you take into consideration the fact that almost half the town still doesn't have power yet even five days after the storm. As badly torn up as the power lines around here are...I was honestly expecting to be out for several days. So, for once, ECIREC did a good job...now if only they'd fix the broken pole in my yard. >_<
Needless to say...it looks like a war zone around here. They're estimating up to 70% of the trees in town are gone. The mayor has described it as "urban deforestation". There's also significant structural damage to many buildings in town. Some places lost parts of their roof, some lost their ENTIRE roof. Then there are SOLID BRICK BUILDINGS that had their walls blown in and collapse. Then, there's power lines down everywhere. Even now, five days later, 45% of the town still doesn't have power yet..and we're under an excessive heat warning until next Wednesday. To put it quite simply...it's bad, really bad. Looking at all the damage, you'd swear a tornado came through, it's that bad. But, they keep insisting it was just straightline winds, that there was no tornado.
So, yeah...a crazy week after a crazy storm.
A13jandr0169
~a13jandr0169
wow, that sounds wicked
