The Winds of 2011

These winds were crazy!!
We survived with moderate damage to our home and yard compared to others. Our buddy's siding got completely blown off. :( No trees uprooted for us thank goodness. I thought our huge north willow was going to go. We watched it sway back and forth pulling up the grass around it. We went out while it was still quite wild to go get a generator and we almost got swept off our feet. We were getting pelted with stuff from all directions. As we were driving and seeing all the destruction it was kind of surreal. Fences completely gone. Huge pines uprooted and laying in the middle of the street or on people's houses. Siding and roofing blown away. Weird.

The national guard came and were hauling green waste and debris to the landfill for us. They were wonderful and worked so fast. At church, an emergency meeting was held to prepare for the next storm that was supposed to be Sunday night. The bishop said, "sometimes you need to pull the ox out of the mire before it gets blown away!" :) So then began the roganizing of debris and tree collection for the neighborhood. It went really fast with so many volunteers. People were tar papering exposed roofs and chain-sawing trees up into manageable sizes. Others were throwing the branches and other debris onto the trailers and then hauling it to the park where the national guard was stationed. It was really cool to see everyone work together to help each other.

We got a few more things for our emergency preparedness but it was really nice to know that if the power was out for the 48 hours they expected (or even longer) we would have been totally fine....besides not having cable and internet. It helps you appreciate all this technology and comfort we are blessed with.