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Tuesday, May. 25, 2004 - 5:42 p.m. All of the terrible weather had somehow missed us for the past week or so. Tornados, flooding rains, lightning storms- not here in Mohall. Maybe just a few miles to the north or south, but not here. Until last night, that is. When I signed off of the computer at 9:30, things were looking bad to the west of here. Severe storms had been building all evening in the state to our west, but hadn�t been moving all that fast. When I loaded up a radar loop just before I signed off, I noticed that the area that was headed for us had suddenly started showing red �supercells� whrere nothing had been only an hour before. These seemed to be lining up, or �training� as the folks at the Weather Channel like to say. Thunder was audible off to the west as we tunred out the lights for the night. It didn�t take long for things to turn bad. About 11 pm, sheets of rain began falling on us. Sweet rain, for the gardener in me. But that was just the start. Codeman knocked on our bedroom door at 1:15 (I know, because I looked at the alarm clock. He said that the air raid sirens were going off, and that he checked the national weather service website to find out that tornados were being spotted all over our county. We headed down to the basement, and had just reached the stairwell when something very loud popped on the back wall of our house. I say �popped�, mainly because I can�t think of another way to describe the sound. The lights flickered for a few seconds, but we made it to the basement without anything else happening to us. I turned on the TV to check the Doppler radar, just in case one of the tornados was headed straight for us. No cable. Just fuzzy snow on the screen. I ran back up to the bedroom, and found out emergency flashlight/radio. Once back in the safety of the basement, I turned it to the local news talk station. They hadn�t even broke in to the overnight national talk show at that point! Something about aliens controlling the heads of state in Europe. Turns out, the local folks were trying to find out what was happening too. They finally broke in and gave the location of the spotted funnel clouds. Three in all, all within a couple of miles of Casa Roadiepig! FUCK! We stayed in the basement, listened to the heavy rain and strong winds, and hoped for the nest for the next 30 minutes or so. The sirens finally were turned off, and the rain slowed enough for us to go up to check out the damage. This is what we saw when we opened the back door:
And we still had power? How? The whole conduit and meter had become free of its anchors on our house. This caused the cable wire to break in two, but not the power line. I called the power company, and after a long wait on hold (show tunes! Come on- I am freakin� out here! I don�t want to listen to the theme from �Hello Dolly� at a time like this!) I was added to the list for power shutdown, but was told to not expect anything until daylight. That was about right. The power company guy didn�t show up until after our electrician had stopped by to survey the damage at 8 am (yes, another burned vacation day). The electrician said that the power should be dead, but he couldn�t tell why it was still up. The ground wire from the pole was broken in two, meaning we were getting free flow electricity without control. He said to not turn anything else on or off, for fear of sending a surge through everything still plugged in. I still shut the computer power strips off, and the one feeding the TV and stereo downstairs, too. Oh yeah- I also turned the air conditioner off. It hadn�t run since the storm. I was afraid if it did kick on, we would be filing a claim with our insurance agent. I had to cut up the two large limbs from (surprise!) the Evil Black Walnut Tree from Hell! before the power company guy could reattach to wires to the house (before the electrician even did his work). He couldn�t shut the power off, but assured me if I didn�t cut through the wires I would be safe. So I cut them so they no longer weighed down on the power lines (both ours and our neighbors). Yes, I was VERY CAREFUL. Long time ago, I had to cut up downed trees at work with power company guys working side by side with us (thinking about the tornados we had here in Mohall about 7 years ago). Just don�t get any closer to the wires than you have to, and make sure that the line isn�t lined up where it will move towards you after the branch is cut. Hey, it was either I cut the branch, or nothing would be done at this time. We were just a couple of houses out of several hundred here in town with downed lines. I had to do what I could. Anyway�. Here is the power company guy, still working on reattaching my neighbor�s power just a little while ago:
6 hours, $213.40 for parts and labor for the electrician, two more visits by the power company guy and one by the cable guy, and everything is back up and running. According to the local news, there are still bunches of people without power here. It is 5:30 pm, over 16 hours after the winds (straight line? Tornado? Who knows for sure- it was pretty dark out, and the rain was really falling at the time) blew through and did all their damage. I feel very lucky to have my services back�. Oh yeah- I almost forgot�I am now a great uncle for the second time. J-Rod�s girlfriend (yes, NOBODY seems to get married before having children anymore) gave birth to a baby boy late last night. With all of the excitement, I forget all the specifics. I do remember that she had to have a c-section after many hours of labor, and that he is very big (over 9 pounds). Lease and I will probably visit them at the hospital a little bit. If we can stay awake long enough to make it up there. We will do our best�..
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A hot day for a wedding...9:26 p.m. - Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009 So bad - but so funny, too.10:33 p.m. - Saturday, Jun. 13, 2009 Evil Black Walnut Tree from Hell!- times up!6:41 a.m. - Thursday, Apr. 23, 2009 My next door neighbor was on the Today Show?8:57 p.m. - Tuesday, Mar. 31, 2009 This qualifies as a "oh crap!" moment:9:55 p.m. - Monday, Mar. 30, 2009 Back to top
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