Basically, I woke up in the middle of a huge thunderstorm to the sound of a giant wind...and a piece of tree banging against our house. There was a series of small tornadoes caused by a severe thunderstorm in my area, in which parts of a tree from the people living behind us flew over our fence and into our backyard and downed a power line, and we haven't had power for two days. And our whole back yard is a mess...there are giant pieces of tree covering most of it, though mysteriously, all our lawn furniture and herbs and bushes were fine. Part of aforementioned tree flew over my roof, damaging it in a minor way, and went into my front yard, and part of our maple trees went into a neighbor's front yard. Tens of thousands of people in the New York area are still without power. In a local park, the damage was extremely specific...whole areas of forest were totally uprooted. Large numbers of trees in small, specific areas are downed, some of which crashed into people's houses or onto their garages, crushing cars. So I'm at my dad's at the moment, another nearby area with no damage.

wow that sucks!  I live in an area where there are hardly any natural disasters...every once in a blue moon we get a tornado...but not very often.  I hope all is okay with your house.

wow that sucks!  I live in an area where there are hardly any natural disasters...every once in a blue moon we get a tornado...but not very often.  I hope all is okay with your house.


I think this is like, the first tornado in 40-50 years where I am...I live in north Jersey, which is quite mountainous, so they're all localized small tornadoes. We have some minor fence damage and minor roof damage, the latter of which was repaired and the former of which is waiting to be prepared and covered by insurance. We were extremely, extremely lucky...there were some huge tree branches that landed like two inches from hitting our kitchen sliding door. The crickets we keep probably protected us  ;D. Other than that, just a sh*tload of branches and no power.

Basically, I woke up in the middle of a huge thunderstorm to the sound of a giant wind...and a piece of tree banging against our house. There was a series of small tornadoes caused by a severe thunderstorm in my area, in which parts of a tree from the people living behind us flew over our fence and into our backyard and downed a power line, and we haven't had power for two days. And our whole back yard is a mess...there are giant pieces of tree covering most of it, though mysteriously, all our lawn furniture and herbs and bushes were fine. Part of aforementioned tree flew over my roof, damaging it in a minor way, and went into my front yard, and part of our maple trees went into a neighbor's front yard. Tens of thousands of people in the New York area are still without power. In a local park, the damage was extremely specific...whole areas of forest were totally uprooted. Large numbers of trees in small, specific areas are downed, some of which crashed into people's houses or onto their garages, crushing cars. So I'm at my dad's at the moment, another nearby area with no damage.


  Awesome, terrifying things, tornados.  Have never met one up close and personal but have lived in the path of a few (Southern Illinois) and have witnessed, first hand, the destruction in their wake (Marion, IL - 1983)...

  Glad you're not hurt.  My best wishes... :)


"herbs and bushes were fine."


  Thank god for that...

 

That was my fear today. The weather was horrible outside and when that wind started picking up, I hightailed it to the bathroom with my son. Luckily, it was just wind and nothing more, although it did cause some branches and stuff to fall and a minor flood on my patio. This is all new to me because I'm used to earthquakes and nothing more.

The great thing about this complex is the way the apartments are set up. I'm on the ground floor and all my windows face East. The storms usually come from the West. To top it off, my apartment unit is built up more in the front, so it's almost like I'm underground. Hard to explain, but I like it.

Okay, enough rambling. Glad you guys are okay. :)

Wow, that's pretty scary.  Glad to hear you're OK.

Sorry to hear that James. I'm glad you are ok.




Cat

Shikes, damage from natural disasters can be a real pain. At least you didn't get hurt...

Not to steal your thunder or anything, but this brings back the memory of the time I went on a school camp to Rottnest Island (a small island popular as a getaway off the coast of Perth), and we stayed in one of those old, brick cottages (formerely a military barracks). Concrete floors, dusty mattresses sealed in plastic - the works. Anyway, there was this huge winter storm one night (it was the middle of winter), with thunder and lighting.etc. The gusts were strong enough to snap the trunk of a very large tree which was just above our cottage which crashed into the roof destroying much of the structure. The damage in one part of the cottage was pretty severely, and we narrowly missed getting seriously injured or even worse. Occasionally, we get mini-tornadoes here, and they can be pretty devastating for all concerned.

Glad you're okay, James...but I can imagine how scary that must've been!

How are you feeling otherwise?

How are you feeling otherwise?


Not as bad as his poor house, I'd imagine.  ::)