Thursday started out like any normal day. I worked in my office, while Dave puttered about the house getting ready to teach (online), later that afternoon. About mid-afternoon, I checked the weather and noted to Dave that were were supposed to get rain later in the evening, and he said the news was saying it was probably going to be an intense storm. I told him I hoped I would have enough time after work to get my lawn cut before the storm hit.

We both went back to our respective offices to do our usual thing. 4:30 rolled around and I was just wrapping up my work, noting that the sky was getting dark. I could hear Dave in his studio, starting his lesson with his student. And then my phone buzzed.

Tornado warning.

Now this isn’t the kind of tornado warning you get in tornado alley… ie – take cover now. It’s a “There’s a storm coming you way – could spawn a tornado… if weather gets bad, take cover”

I went outside to get a better look… the sky was dark, but also glowing a little – a warm, but eerie glow. The air was dead calm. The birds were silent. I came back in the house and started battening down the hatches. I locked the catio door so it wouldn’t bang in the wind (it doesn’t latch). I made sure the cats were all inside, and locked up the cat flap. About five minutes later, the wind stirred up. It was a howler…

The wind roared and whistled around the house. The rain came in sheets so thick you could barely see more than a foot out the window. Thunder and lightning cracked. Then a couple trees up the street fell in the road… and the power went out.

That’s when Dave came out of his studio. We paced the first floor, transfixed, watching – moving from window to window to see what we could see… it was hard to describe the intensity of the wind… I’ve never seen anything like it. All the while it roared and whistled.

And then in about 10 minutes… the wind died, almost as if it had never been. The rain slowed. Thunder still rumbled but we took the chance to step out onto the front porch.

Two houses up from us – at the corner, several trees blocked the road. I could smell natural gas. Then came the fire truck. (Sorry Dee, I didn’t take a picture). We watched them do their thing, assessing the house with the fallen trees.

A little while later, they started to go door to door. One of the trees hit and broke a gas line. They asked us not to start are vehicles and just sit tight until the gas company could get there.

The rain had stopped, so we took a look around the house.

We lost the side fence, which was coming down this year and being rebuilt anyway. But other than that – we escaped damage. I had a lot of small branches and leaves to clean up, and the gardens got beat about a bit. But that was it.

When the thunder finally stopped and the sky cleared, I went for a little walk. We were definitely among the lucky ones.

Trees down everywhere. I’ve personally never witnessed anything like it. On my walk, I saw a few vehicles with minor damage, and amazingly, only a couple of houses with trees on them. Even as I was walking – no more than 30 minutes after the storm, homeowners were out everywhere with chainsaws, working away to get trees out of the road so emergency vehicles and hydro trucks could get through.

There’s more to our tale, and I’ll share it tomorrow. But we are all safe and well, and in awe of mother nature.

In the meantime you can read about the storm and the range of the damage here.

To be continued…