Snowflake
01-15-2006, 04:10 PM
Well, Friday night we had a nice little tornado touch down in the little town of Warrenton, VA. I had just gone to bed (about 12:30) and ignorance is bliss! It was fierce and it was short and it was destructive! I live on a 65 acre farm in a little 2 bedroom cottage. Surrounded by pasture mostly, but plenty of trees in my yard, including a 60 foot tall behemoth under which I park my car.
The wind was fierce, the rain and God knows what else was hitting the storm windows sideways. It was fast, lasted about 5 minutes and I heard many huge CRACKS and saw a gigantic FLASH. The power went out and so did the phones. I looked out, all around me pitch blackness and a weird stillness. I tossed another blanket on the bed and went to sleep.
So Saturday, I get up and get dressed, the power is still out and no phones, okay. I go out to take a look and wow! The tree in the pasture outside my office is sheered off at about the 4 foot high point (it's about 16 inches across in diameter and was close to 20 feet high) and then the tree right next to my office missed the house by inches! Outside my living room window there is a very tall stump of a tree trunk (it's about 6 feet of what it left of a tree trunk, covered in ivy, I always thought kind of attractive) That is split down the center light it was hit by lightening! The driveway to the property is littered with trees and the main road is impassable, downed power, phone lines and HUGE trees are now matchsticks!
So today, once the power came on, I cleaned out the fridge of all the cooked food, milk, veggies, etc. and took the trash to where the bins are on the ppoperty and found one of the utility buildings completely destroyed, flattened. The lanlord's place lost 2 humongous trees. The front of the property had 6 large pine trees along the rock wall, every one, sheered off at the top of the fence line! And across the street, there stood our mailboxes, unharmed, go figure.
Power was out all day, came on for about 2 hours Saturday evening, but the high winds of the day (and a freak snowstorm blowing snow sideways) continued on through the night, knocked power out again. It was frickin freezing last night too! Fortunatley my quilt is nice and heavy. Even little Tango (my kitty) gave it up and slept with Mom to keep warm! :-)
Power was restored around 3 today and phones about 4. It did give me the opportunity to bundle up with a book and read it through.
Give me rain and earthquakes in California anytime! Can't wait to get home again!
Donna
The wind was fierce, the rain and God knows what else was hitting the storm windows sideways. It was fast, lasted about 5 minutes and I heard many huge CRACKS and saw a gigantic FLASH. The power went out and so did the phones. I looked out, all around me pitch blackness and a weird stillness. I tossed another blanket on the bed and went to sleep.
So Saturday, I get up and get dressed, the power is still out and no phones, okay. I go out to take a look and wow! The tree in the pasture outside my office is sheered off at about the 4 foot high point (it's about 16 inches across in diameter and was close to 20 feet high) and then the tree right next to my office missed the house by inches! Outside my living room window there is a very tall stump of a tree trunk (it's about 6 feet of what it left of a tree trunk, covered in ivy, I always thought kind of attractive) That is split down the center light it was hit by lightening! The driveway to the property is littered with trees and the main road is impassable, downed power, phone lines and HUGE trees are now matchsticks!
So today, once the power came on, I cleaned out the fridge of all the cooked food, milk, veggies, etc. and took the trash to where the bins are on the ppoperty and found one of the utility buildings completely destroyed, flattened. The lanlord's place lost 2 humongous trees. The front of the property had 6 large pine trees along the rock wall, every one, sheered off at the top of the fence line! And across the street, there stood our mailboxes, unharmed, go figure.
Power was out all day, came on for about 2 hours Saturday evening, but the high winds of the day (and a freak snowstorm blowing snow sideways) continued on through the night, knocked power out again. It was frickin freezing last night too! Fortunatley my quilt is nice and heavy. Even little Tango (my kitty) gave it up and slept with Mom to keep warm! :-)
Power was restored around 3 today and phones about 4. It did give me the opportunity to bundle up with a book and read it through.
Give me rain and earthquakes in California anytime! Can't wait to get home again!
Donna