Bad Weather

We were promised bad weather for Thursday night by all the weather gurus and we got it. It turns out that there was a tornado in the northwest part of town that was responsible for the worst of it. Some homes suffered a lot of damage. Roofs are gone, garages separated from houses.

Our part of town was luckier. There were downed branches and trees all over, but not the extensive damage that was caused by the tornado. On the way to work, people often had to figure out quick detours because many roads were blocked off.

I will digress here just a little bit to say, "People, the street is blocked off with barriers!" We watched about ten cars drive through on the green light and weave their way past the saw-horse barriers that had been put on a street. Large branches were easily visible and yet they drove through the barriers. In about fifteen seconds, they all had made a U-turn and were heading for a different route. "People, the street is blocked off with barriers and you can see tree limbs, huge tree limbs in the street!"

Anyway, some people had to call co-workers for rides to work because they could NOT get out of their driveway. All day long you could hear chain saws. By late afternoon, most streets in our area were cleared. Some of the trees were trimmed just enough today for traffic to get by and the rest of clean-up will be tomorrow, but I was amazed at how quickly and efficiently it all got done. Our neighbors were out in their yards doing clean-up. People down the street sawed off the parts of the tree that were blocking the sidewalk. The street cleaners were out getting the smaller twigs and leaves out of the street so that they don't clog the storm drains. Insurance claim cars were driving in the neighborhoods. It's like well-oiled machinery.