Yesterday evening found us hovering around the computer, watching our local news station's broadcast. We kept a close eye on the signature hook formation in the storm system moving our way, then the next and the next and the next.
The closest tornado touched down one county over, to the west. We were fortunate to only get two big rounds of hail. The three big kids came out of bed and scurrying downstairs as the first one hit our house. Emma and Ben: excited, Josh: terrified. (Little girls miraculously slept through it all.) The roar of it pummeling the roof was deafening, accented by the chunks of ice hitting the windows. As soon as the first system moved past, Scott ran out and collected handfuls of the huge hail which are now in our freezer. When he opened the door we all looked out and the air was thick with mist and the strong scent of pine trees (like Christmas). We lost power in the midst of round two of the hail (came back on around 2 or 3 am). To calm the adrenalin rush, Scott told the kids a good long story before sending them back to bed. We passed the powerless time watching some of The War together on his phone (snuggly!).
This morning we woke to find our front window screens torn up, broken glass in the boys' window (only the outer pane, so all was dry), some of the shingles askew, and a host of pock marks and cracks in our siding. The yard looks like we had it aerated. Venturing out into town for the days' activities we discovered everything south of the interstate to be covered with a carpet of leaves and branches, and highlighted with fallen trees and just a couple of impassable flooded streets.
It was a singular experience for us, but tuning into the news we were sobered to find that our worries were inconsequential compared with much our region. Our prayers continue to go out to those who lost everything.
8 comments:
wow.
Holy moly. That is some HUGE hail. Thanks for putting a visual with all the updates I've been hearing on facebook. Everyone has broken windshields and dented cars. I didn't understand until I read this post. I wish you didn't have a broken window but at least the kids didn't do it.
Thanks for a very informative post. Tell Scott thanks for gathering up some monstrous hail. I think your blog should go down in history for people to see the potential damage that can be done.
So glad you're ok. I personally hate tornadoes!! We are also praying for all those effected by this monstrous storm.
Wow. I'm so glad you guys are ok. You seemed to handle it so calmly. I would have been terrified!
Glad there were no injuries! Yikes.
It's May 5 - Happy Cinco de Mayo. Just saw this post after arriving home from Washigton. Wow!!! I didn't even know you had a broken window in a child's room. Dad and I are just now checking our damage, but like you, we are just so grateaful that things didn't turn out worse. It could have been so much worse for us in Knox County. Prayers for those who suffered so much more.
I'm so thankful you were kept safe from the storm!
So SCARY! The damage on the windows doesn't seem so bad, but it must have been pretty freaky during the hail storm. Thankfully, no one was hurt by the hailstones.
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