I Googled something last night and found out we got hit by a tornado.
Back in August.
For two and a half months we’d been telling everyone it was straight line winds. That’s what we were told at the time, and that’s what we repeated to anyone who asked about the trees. Then last night I looked it up, and it was actually an EF1 tornado.
So that’s fun to learn in October.
I Was in the Basement at Work
It was August 11th. The tornado warning came through while I was at work, so I was down in the basement waiting it out with my coworkers and patients.
Then Pete texted me.
No words, just a picture he’d taken out our back sliding glass door.
The big maple in our backyard had split almost in two. Half of it came down on our power line and snapped the power pole.
So I called him, and he told me what happened. The wind was so strong that it damaged the beautiful, old tree in our yard.
My first thought was the chickens.
What can I say? They’re my babies.
The Long Drive Home
Driving home looked like a war zone. I don’t know how else to describe it. Trees were down everywhere. Damage to roofs and houses and barns. Trees toppled onto cars.
Here’s what damage we had:
- The maple, split and lying on the power line, with the pole gone
- The top of the pine tree in the front yard, lying across the road, and our mailbox with it
- Several more pines down around the farm
- The corn, flattened
- A torn-up tarp on the coop and some damage to the chicken run
The chickens were fine. They stayed in their coop through the whole thing, and Pete was able to fix the run.
They were not happy about any of it, though, and they had a lot to say when I went out to check on them.
24 Hours, No Power, and Half a Cow in the Freezer
We were without power for almost 24 hours.
That doesn’t sound so bad until you remember that we have half a side of beef in the freezer.
So we went out and bought several big bags of ice and packed the fridge and freezer to keep everything cold. We bought ice for our neighbors across the road too.
The beef made it, thank goodness.
Since we couldn’t cook, we needed dinner while we were out. We ended up trying a pizza carryout place we’d never been to.
It’s one of our favorites now.
And they deliver to the farm. Out here, that’s a very big deal.
So the tornado gave us a new pizza place. Silver linings.
The Neighbors Got It Worse
The neighbors down the road lost their whole roof, and their barn collapsed.
The farm further down lost part of their roof and their barn collapsed. As they harvest this fall, the farmers are still finding pieces of it out in the fields.
Old, majestic trees that have been on the land around us were ripped out of the ground or destroyed.
And It Was Fair Week
Because of course it was.
The fairgrounds were not okay. People lost their tents, trees were down, and there was a lot of flooding. Some vendors packed up and left early because of the damage. When I went to pick up my miniature I entered, it was sad seeing the damage.
We had more storms that week, but thankfully nothing like that one.
People Showed Up
This is the part I keep coming back to.
When our neighbor’s roof blew off, people just showed up. They brought trailers and loaded up his animals. They nailed tarps and plywood to his house, until late in the night, so he’d have something over his head.
Nobody organized it. They came.
Where Things Stand Now
We were lucky. Our house had no damage, just trees. I know how much worse it could have been, because I can see it when I look down the road.
It took until October to get everything cleaned up.
Now we’re dealing with the pile.
We decided to chip the downed branches for the chicken run, which seemed like a great idea until we started. It’s a very slow process. The bigger pieces we’ll burn.
We’re doing it a little at a time, but the pile is HUGE. Honestly, it’ll probably take months.
The chickens will get a nice new run floor out of it eventually. I’m sure they’ll have opinions about that too.
If you want to know how long the pile actually takes, I’ll keep you posted in my Monday night email, along with what’s new on the blog. You can sign up here.
