At Home and Beyond: Stormy Weather, Ice and Tornadoes

It has been quite a ride these past couple of months. The classic song "Stormy Weather" could be our theme song for spring in Michigan. Sunny days are the exception, rather than the rule and while it's not raining daily, the sky hasn't been all that blue. With storms comes clean-up. And that is never fun.

I mentioned the first storm back about a month ago. It was at the lake in early April. Our ice storm made national headlines. The cottage got hit pretty hard (though it could have been harder -- no structural damage, apart from a couple of broken windows in the garage; some neighbors had it worse). Rick finally got up to see what it looked  like.

The yard was a dense carpet of branches and limbs. Tops of trees had fallen to the ground and trees still standing were precariously placed.

 

Let me say that it is never easy to find help up north. You make appointments, people don't show up. We had a tree stump in the yard for two years because no one would show up to remove it or even quote on removal. (It did make for a good "Time Out" spot.) 

Rick had the same problem but finally found people who apparently came up from Texas and wanted to be paid in cash. You ask no questions, so long as the work is done. 

 And, they did the work and did a good job with it. One big problem done. (Note the lack of a "top" to that pine tree on the right -- a tall, broken stick.) Rick says many of the trees up there don't have leaves yet -- they should at least be in bud stage.

 

A nice tidy yard! How bad could that be -- time to have fun, right? Nope. We had no power. And because we had no power, that meant no pump or water. Or heat, for that matter. The fireplace could only do so much and with no power, the space heaters were useless. And all that food he brought up? Fortunately, Rick found electricians. Unfortunately, they couldn't come for several days. What to do with no fridge?

Thanks to Cousin David down the road (who also had no water) Rick could at least fridge the food and cook. David's neighbor kindly let Rick use their internet password so he didn't have to go uptown to the library. Getting the power people on the schedule for our place was tricky -- and after that, there were too many snafus to explain. Let's just say that getting the inspection took time and after that going through the power company's bureaucracy to get the actual switch on took days. (At least the weather got better.) 

Because we had the electricians upgrade our power (apart from connecting wires and such related to the storm), the hot water heater had to be moved to place the new box. That meant after they left and the power was back, Rick had to hook up the water and do some water heater repairs/adjustments. All good. Then the pump didn't work. Needless to say, all ended up OK. Eventually. The internet was last to come after Rick had been there 10 days.

BUT, as he was wrapping things up in the north, down at home we had stormy weather. An E-1 tornado went through our neighborhood or at least close enough that we felt the effects of major winds (clocked at 80-100 mph). I huddled in the basement with only the phone flashlight for light when power went out seconds after I got downstairs. I was lucky. And it was powerfully loud, which was a little scary (with good reason). At Rick's house two blocks away, power was still out five days. (Which is why he stayed at the lake!)

And Rick's house looked like this.

In this photo, you can see how much of the tree fell off -- basically one whole upper side.

 

We don't THINK there is structural damage unless to the shingles but the eaves will need some work.

Many roads were closed or  blocked off by fallen trees and power lines.

The Ditch took a hit too. The fencing was out in places.

Trees on the island were down, some into the pond...

And many trees blocked the walking path.

 

My neighbors have been digging out cars and the sounds of chain saws and tree services roaming the neighborhood is relentless.

I have no idea how this one is going to be taken care of. 

As I write this, I'm hearing news reports of storms across the country devastating areas. We had no deaths in our storm, though I know of many a house with a tree through a window or the roof, both in Lansing (we were not the only neighborhood hit by this storm) or up north. This is the home of one friend who lives about six miles away.

photo by Rich W.

I took a drive around our neighborhood. One one badly hit block, brush and tree limbs were piled on the curb, like a hedge, taller than I am.

 

Giant cranes with cables were pulling trees off of houses.

A major intersection connecting the east and west sides of town was closed  due to downed power lines and more. (This was after they had been working for 24 hours; news photos of the earlier site were worse. Five days later they are still at work.)

I took a photo of this lovely magnolia earlier this spring. Later, I saw even this much that had remained had been cut to the ground.

I fear we will see more of these as our climate changes. All I can say is that we were lucky on all counts. Pay attention to those warning sirens!

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