finally, my day is over

[adina]

So it started with 5-6 inches of water in the basement, which, I'll admit, briefly sent me into hysterics. I don't think there will be too much damage, waiting for it to dry out some before I go digging. The floor is no longer flooded, but it's still very wet.

I ran to the grocery store before putting the girls to bed. Turns out we got off lightly. There's about a dozen huge trees completely down here in town (small town pop. around 3300). There's at least a dozen more that have had huge branches split right off of them. Still more that have lost smaller branches, and a barn that was blown almost across the highway, in pieces. A nearby church has lost half it's roof, and streets are closed off for flooding and electric wires being down.

The entire county is a mess. A tree 3 houses away came down, and got lodged in another tree, which prevented it from landing on the house next door. Missed it by like 10 feet. At the end of our street, a pine tree taller than a 3 story house came down, fell right along the side of the road, missing power lines and house. The sad part is, the guy who lived there's great grandmother planted that tree when she moved into the house.

Through everything, so far no injuries or deaths. And minor damage, considering.

Going out tomorrow to take some pictures.

adina

[natatbeach]

to hear what a time you've had of it.... seems like everything happens when the hubbies are away. Last week my oldest son ran away---he was gone for two days and it was a beast trying to find him with the children and secure babysiting while trying to file missing person reports and warrants(he's got a PO) to have him brought in...

evry parent wants to know--- reason he ran away was because he didn't feel like doing his chores that day and told be that if I grounded for being a disrespectful and I made him do the chores he would leave. So I told him he he didn't set the rules and he wasn't going to back me into a corner and that he wasn't making the wisest choices in the heat of the moment. So don't you know the little booger said "you are creating the situation---ground me ---I leave" so I proceeded to tell him the exits are this way this way and this way (in my best stewardess voice) Guess that wasn't too smart... it's all over and done with for now...He has a court hearing for this incident and for breaking contracts set in place by the courts ( we have four hearings on the 7th of june) and order has ben restored to the universe

Thnaks for letting me vent/share on your post...just wanted to get across that I understand and I'm really sorry you've had so much on your plate....look forward to you documenting this crazy trying time...take care...be careful...

[paulnj]

hate to say this..... BUT sounds like a medium storm. IF YOU WERE CLOSER TO NJ I would be there with a LTL 9000 LOG TRUCK, 2 bucket trucks, 2 chippers connected to L8000 17 yard dump bodies that take 17" wide trees AND MAKE A KILLING FROM THE INSURANCE COMPANIES ;)

last july we had a storm here that took down 3000+ trees in 2 miles of road!

my 2 brothers and 2 co workers made the COMPANY 70k in a week($250 a man hour)

HEHEHE.... I LOVED REMOVING TREES FROM HOMES, OTHER TREES, CARS, .. it took the use of one's brain, back, gear to not further the damage down or CAUSE any AT ALL.

I truely miss tree work

[adina]

But sure feels worse when it is shaking your whole house. And I know I've seen worse, but I'm usually not home alone. Although the girls were very good about it, and slept thru the whole thing. I have a friend whose kids freaked out and had panic attacks.

Nat,

So sorry to hear about your son. That must be very difficult to go thru. Good luck on the 7th.

adina

[paulnj]

I WASN'T making light of your situation at all.

I've taken trees off MY HOUSE before too.... those aren't as fun

water damage is NEVER FUN, nor is watch YOUR trees wave in the wind.

on a good note... if your trees are still there, then you have STRONG HEALTHY TREES(unless they have stress cracks)

if you truely would like them gone and they are close to the house/ driveway(or anything of VALUE), YOUR INSURANCE COMPANY will sometimes pay to remove INSTEAD of paying a CLAIM in the future ;)

[adina]

Actually, the tree I would like gone, we decided to leave for at least another year. It's right where the garage will be, and we are just going to leave it until we are ready to build. We did have some taken down last summer, a guy came out with a lift thingy. To shady, moss was growing on the roof.

adina

[dsl712]

Adina,

Sorry to hear about the water. Did you photograph it? Just kidding. Yeah we are getting hit hard with rain here in the Midwest. Yesterday I was shooting a wedding and luckily it didn't rain during the day but sure came down at night.

Hope your house is back in order soon.

Dennis

[paulnj]

last week I was driving to work in RAIN so heavy that wipers on high BARELY moved from the amount of water falling..... FREAKY RAIN

it's may........ why the rain now?

APRIL SHOWERS BRING MAY FLOWERS.. right??

[adina]

I did photograph it.

Second one is the tricycle. First is two boxes of glasses that someone gave me from a restaurant that was closing, and the dollhouse that we haven't gotten around to assemblying yet. Since the bottom box was a plastic crate, that's what I stacked on. Luckily, my in-laws had taken a huge pickup truck full of stuff to thier house for a rummage sale. Otherwise there would have been much much more mess.

I think my washer and dryer are broken, service guy is coming out on Tuesday. Apparently they weren't made to sit in water. Who'da thunk it?

I have some more in the camera from after the water drained, all the bubbly drywall and stuff like that.

adina

[ACArmstrong]

I feel for you, Adina and am glad that no one in your family or town was injured. We had more than 3 feet of water in our basement on two occassions, and it wasn't even severe weather. The city neglected to clean a storm drain system that runs beside our house and our basement was the next closest thing to it. It all worked out well, though - the city paid for repairs and everything that was lost - still it really sucked and I won't put anything of value down there now.

Best of luck with the cleanup.

[MJS]

Things can always be replaced. At least you and your family are all right. I remember an unwanted visitor by the name of Andrew from about 12 years ago. One house blown down around my ankles is enough for this lifetime.

Be safe.