After my post last Monday night, we experienced an experience that I don't think any of us will ever forget! The wind had started to pick up that evening and was blowing many things around outside. It was quite a stormy night.
I have never been a fan of the wind. Since we moved to this area when I was in 3rd grade we've experienced wind storms and we lived in the woods. I remember a couple of storms that were quite bad. Since Greg and I have lived here together we have gone through many many wind storms, we have them every year and we still live in the woods. I hate to listen to the sounds of trees falling in the woods all around us. Especially in the dark. It is so eerie. And the wind seem so loud. It is unsettling to me listening to the wind howling through the night and trees crashing to the leafy grounds.
Well the wind the other night was the most incredible wind that I've ever felt here in my whole life. We had a few gusts that were just LOUD and strong! Shook the house! You could hear it, it wasn't howling then, it was more of a scream that threatened to shatter all of the glass in the house. Then there was The Gust. Greg and I heard it coming. He said that I looked at him and said "Greg?!" like I was really scared, that I don't remember. But I was scared! Then I heard "Moommyy!! Mommmy!" so I went running into the living room where they were sitting on the couch, their eyes as big as saucers.
I heard a horrific sound just then. I believe what I heard was the cracking of the tree as it broke off 25 feet up in the air. Just as I ran through the dining room, I heard THUD THUD and then the sound of what I thought was glass breaking. I ran faster because I knew it happened right behind me. When I got to the kids I turned around and expected to see the tree through the window and my ceiling caved in.
The ceiling was caved in a little and the molding that holds up the paneling on the ceiling of a mobile home was hanging down. There weren't any tree branches or anything inside the house. When I went back in to Greg, he was on the other side of the dining room in his living room (we have 2 living rooms) and he had sat on his couch and watched it all, I asked him where the broken glass was because the window wasn't broken. He thought maybe the wind blew out the window behind him, but we couldn't tell because of the curtains. After a few minutes Greg realized the glass sound I heard was his chandelier. Nothing broke, but the rims shook all around the glass lights and were all messed up.
Greg went outside after a the wind died down a little and assessed the damage. He thought maybe it wasn't real bad, but it was hard to tell. But by now, I am so scared that I want out of here! So we started packing things up to go stay the night at his dads house. Greg called his mom, who is our landlord and his dad to let him know we were coming over, but then his dad lost power.
I was still packing to get outta here for the night and Greg was having second thoughts. I said that we all needed to stop and pray together. Stinky was panicking. Bubba was ok but he wouldn't let go of the lantern in case we lost power. We knelt down and prayed together that the Lord would lead Greg to make the right decision for the family for the night. After he had a moment of reflection and thought, he decided that we should just stay home. His dad didn't have power and he has trees all around his house also. And the chances of something hitting the van while we were driving over there were high also.
I had quite a time settling down the kids. Or I guess mostly Stinky. But I finally did and we laid down on the couch to watch a movie. By this time it was 11:30 I think. We were up until almost 1am.
The next morning I woke up before everyone else, as usual, and decided to go outside and investigate on my own. The first thing that I noticed was that in the woods across from our driveway, 3 trees had fallen down. One was a huge fir that pulled up all of the roots with it! The huge fir in front of my sister-in-law's house next door had dropped a huge limb that took out a few others as it plummeted to the ground. In the back yard I noticed that 2 trees were leaning in the opposite direction of the wind, like maybe a tree fell over there and uprooted them a little, but they are too far back in the woods for me to tell. A limb from a huge tree in back also fell on our tent. That is ok, it was ruined anyways. Greg had it up just for fun.
The side backyard, where the tree fell on the house, was another eerie scene. Bubba's Tonka trucks were back there and 2 of them got ruined. One was totally smashed. There are huge holes in my deck. The gutter was ripped of the house. I can't tell what the damage is to the roof from down here though.
Greg said there was holes in the roof. It is too hard to patch because when they reroofed our house, they didn't take off the existing roof like they should have. So we have to cover it for now. Greg covered it like his roofer cousin taught him. But because the gutter was torn off and there was an opening there, the wind yesterday blew again and the rain blew in under there, we believe. Because yesterday we started to get leaks. We went and bought more stuff to cover it better and a long tarp. The tarp is currently hanging over the edge of the roof so no rain can get back in. And it also hangs over the window. But I'll live with that as long as my roof isn't leaking anymore!
So that is the stress of this week for me. Since Saturday I've been busy with things out of my control. Sick kids, high winds, falling trees, leaky roofs and panic from the kids and I. I have to hide my panic which makes it harder for me too. I don't want the kids to know I'm quite as scared as I am! lol
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