The Storm

Here is the before picture of my house. This picture was taken just a few days before the storm. The storm happened on Friday night. Mitch had been in St. Louis for work and I was headed to get him at about 4:30 and the skies were perfectly sunny and a very clear day. As I loaded the boys in, the tornado sirens started going off. I debated whether to stay or go, but I decided to go since the sirens had gone off a lot this summer and never produced anything. We saw the really dark cloud coming towards us and we were able to get into the airport before anything happened. They quickly took us into the storm shelter and we waited in there for about 15 minutes until the storm passed (That's how fast it was). The storm was called a Category 2 Hurricane. The winds were 80-90 mph and it hit my neighborhood bad. Driving down my street to my house I felt I was in a battleground. Huge trees were down everywhere and the cars and roads were covered with leaves and debris. Here is what we came home to:
I still can't believe that huge old tree didn't do any damage to our house. I am also glad I wasn't home, because it would have freaked me out to see that tree fall. The clean up was fast though because of great neighbors. We have now been without power for 76 hours and it finally just came on. Wahoo!!! Air conditioning just kicked on and I'm feeling good. This has been an actual blessing. It took a natural disaster, but I cleaned out my fridge and freezer which was much needed. Also, we were so lucky because our neighbors all around us recieved their power at about 20 hours (right at the time I needed to put my stuff in coolers), so I was able to use Erin's (my dear next door neighbor) deep freezer. Since all my neighbors had just bought ice for their stuff, they gave me their ice for all my fridge food. Also, the Zech's were SO nice and generous and plugged in a 100 ft. extension cord to their house and we have been able to plug in different items in our house which has really helped. The reason our house didn't have power and everyone else did was because the tree snapped that single power line going from our unit to the power line. I am so thankful they came to fix it tonight because I really thought it was going to be Saturday before anyone came since we are just one little unit.

There are a LOT of people to thank. The Bleaks who cooked us dinner twice, Paula who made us a delicious Sunday dinner, the Zech's for allowing us to use their power, Erin for letting us use her deep freezer, the Goates' for letting us use their home, all the ice from the numerous neighbors, my mom for doing all my laundry right before she left that day and all the other neighbors for the care, support and offers to help! You guys are all the best!
Pictures above: The street we live on with a few trees knocked down. The wagon full of hail. I took this picture about an hour after the storm.