It happened on June 29, a Friday. It was short, but very damaging. The Grandaddy Wind Storm. Nothing like it had been seen in this valley in any living person's memory. The power company said it was twice as damaging as any storm they had ever seen!
I went to work, like any other day. The heat had been unbearable all day, around 106* or more with the heat index and even triple digits without it. The storm clouds drew in around 9pm, just in time for my midday break. I went out to my car to eat and relax as per usual, until I saw the heavy clouds and flashing lightning. I knew a storm was coming, the wind began to pick up a little at that point. I grabbed my cell and tried to call J to bring in my young chicks from the storm, but couldn't get through. I tried D & A1, who answered only to inform me they weren't at home, but had gone out to find a birthday gift for D's father. I said okay, hung up and tried J again. Then sent her a text. At this point, not 5 more minutes, the wind was really howling out of control. No rain yet though, but strange light flashes all over the sky. Like extreme heat lightning. At this point I stepped out of my car to assess the wind strength, then called A again and talked to D. Asked them to please get their hind ends home and out of the storm.
The wind began to howl intensely and a slight roaring could be heard easily. I looked back at the building to discover all the lights were out. Looking around I realized they were gone all around the area. The outside lights had gone out shortly after I went out, but I really hadn't paid it much mind. At this point I noticed one of the leads in her car near the door. The roaring was increasing in volume, so I asked her if her key (to let us in the building) would work without power. She left her car and joined me inside the building. The wind storm continued to rage outside while the small group of us, about 3 dozen or so, sat just inside with cell phones and iPhones trying to get any news. Without power, we all knew there would likely be no more work done that night, but the company also couldn't send anyone out into the storm either. So we were stuck until a decision was reached. The wind continued howl and roar it's way through the valley. After about an hour, it wound itself down. Not a single drop of rain fell that night, but it didn't need to. They released us shortly after that, we each left for home around 10:15pm.
Immediately after leaving the lot I realized the power outage was much farther reaching that at first presumed. The traffic lights and most of the power from the building to my home street were dark. There were cars all over the road though, I hadn't been expecting that. I turned up the road leading to our neighborhood, but was stalled when I came upon a bright yellow backhoe in the middle of the road. A gigantic tree (a Maple, at least 2 feet in diameter) had been uprooted and fell right across the road. The power lines were all over the place, entangled in the trunk and branches. I left my car and walked around to see how bad the other side of the road was. Another tree, or broken branches had come down on the other side, blocking the secondary turn on my usual route. Lines were broken and dangling a mere 2 feet off the ground.
I returned to my car then and turned around to go a different route, only to find that way blocked by a police car, more branches, more downed lines. Backed up and went another way, got almost to my block when another downed tree blocked the road. Again, more lines down. Back in the car and snaked my way around and up the alley. That way was clear and I finally made it to the house... where I had to park in the grass, because a huge branch had broken off the neighbor's (across the street) Maple and come down over the street and in our front yard. In the process of coming down, it ripped down (and nearly out) our neighbor's (next door) power lines. I went inside and checked on the kids. Everyone was okay, helped them light the hurricane lamps. J had been watching the 2 youngest and when the storm hit, she grabbed them, a light, and a blanket and herded them into the basement. She did manage to get the chicks in before the storm hit as well. The backhoe and a pair of guys with chainsaws showed up around 2am to clear the brush from the road.
The next day the city managed to get our power back up by midmorning... they tied the neighbor's line up to our tree to get it off the ground. That was it until Monday. The rest of the downed lines were repaired throughout the week. The brush and downed trees are still being cleaned up. There is damage everywhere you look. The weather folk claim there were no actual tornadoes, but not everyone believes it. That branch that came down on our lawn broke, then went up and over 3 power lines before it fell. The 'branch' was nearly a foot in diameter. It would have taken a powerful updraft to have accomplished that feat.
Still, I'm grateful no one on our street was hurt, no serious damage that insurance won't cover, and the power was returned quickly. In the back yard, only a few branches came down from the Black Walnut, and the roof on the pigeons blew off. The winds we had were hurricane force, extremely rare in this region.
