Storms

Last Tuesday night (actually about 3:00 a.m. Wednesday morning) our town was hit by a tremendous storm.  Marvin and I both literally sat up in bed at the moment we heard the winds hit our house.  There was no warning issued (more on that later...) but we were quite aware that this was a doozy of a storm.  The winds were howling, the rain was pouring, and everything outside looked eerie.  The strong winds lasted for about 20 minutes before subsiding to a regular old thunderstorm.  We wondered what on earth we would see come morning.

Turns out we had almost 10 inches of rain in less than 12 hours.  That, coupled with those strong winds, did quite a bit of damage around our town.  Thankfully, we didn't have any damage out here at Willis Creek Ranch, other than losing more tree limbs and the damage that raging water does to roads and fields when flooding.  However, many in town were not as fortunate.  An old building near downtown collapsed, many had trees come down on their homes, Westlakes Hardware had damage to their roof, and a line of 6 large power poles were twisted off along Illinois Street.  Needless to say, Wednesday was clean-up day for many.

As to the lack of a warning... I simply must stop relying on weather warnings to take cover.  The lack of a warning with this storm made me question its severity, even though I could HEAR the kind of storm it was.  What I didn't yet know was that the entire weather service warning system was not functioning following a direct hit earlier in the evening at 11:00 pm!  There was no warning because there was no working warning system!  Even now, the weather service is saying that they have absolutely no idea how strong the winds were during this storm.  They can 'estimate'.  Hmmm...  So can I, for that matter!!!  I have heard 70 mph winds fairly often these last years and this storm seemed to me to pack an even bigger punch.  Seeing those twisted power poles sure makes me think it was more than 70 mph.  But, we will never really know, will we?

I only have a couple photos of our property.  The first is of one of the berms in the back 40.  It certainly shows that all the work that went into the 40 acres project last fall was worth it!  The berms were designed to prevent water erosion by capturing rain and draining it more slowly; rather than letting it rush through the field, doing great damage.  You can see that this berm is filled with water!  It was like its own little lake, about 6 feet deep.  There were actually 2 berms filled with water.  Two days later both were drained properly and the field did not suffer erosion damage this time around.  Success!

1 of 2 filled berms in the back 40

The second photo is of the fence alongside a front field that shows grass stuck in the top lines.  The water was at least this high as it raced across the field and, thankfully, through the tube under our road.  We don't believe our driveway was under water... but it had to have been pretty close!  (photo taken from our car window)

Here are photos that I gleaned from public pages on Facebook.

Westlakes Hardware store

This building stood just a block off the downtown square

You can see where the side of the stream lifted up during the flooding!

Friends live in the house on the right.  

Many were without power.

Kellwood was particularly hard hit. 

And this was at my friend Karen's house.  Incredible that the tree fell directly on their back stoop!!