Posted by Plantlady
on May 9, 2009, 10:37 am
Well, just doing a quick news check online, I don't see anything about what happened here, so you may be hearing it here first. After my last post yesterday, I decided to stay home and keep an eye on the weather situation. Good thing I did.
About 11:30 a.m. it started with torrential rains (2-3 inches in less than an hour) and hail ranging from pea sized to golf ball sized. It continued until about 1 p.m., when the weather system rotated clockwise like a hurricane with an eye (some are calling it a land hurricane). It came straight through here with hurricane force winds, plastering houses, cars, everything, with wet leaves and knocking down thousands of huge trees. Then of course the power went out all over the area as trees downed power lines, etc.
As of now, there are over 63,000 people without power on the main electric company and no idea how many on the rural cooperatives.
Then we lost our water. Apparently the city didn't have a back up generator to pump the water, a situation that they got remedied during the night.
We were luckier than many people. We had three giant trees (over 50 ft.) fall completely over, but our house and garage and sheds were untouched.
Our county and the one to the west are completely without power...no stores, no gas stations, no restaurants. Many roads are blocked with downed trees, although they have now cleared the main highways.
My son and I went out and took a few pics of the damage. Some of it is really bizarre, like a chimney which fell over onto the roof of a house and an electric pole that was broke into three or four pieces high in the air but was still hanging there.
We have our genny running to keep the frig and freezer cold and for a little internet access. Otherwise, we are okay with plenty of food, water, candles, etc. and the outside temp is nice, so we can open windows for air. Got a means to cook outside and can handle most everything else.
A huge fleet of utility company and FEMA vehicles are on the way or already here assessing the damage and beginning clean up and restoration of power. There will be public press conference in half an hour. A local radio station suspended all programming and have been taking and dispensing information all the time since it all happened yesterday, so I've had my handheld radio and headphones on most of the time.
It's been a BIG wake up call for people about preps. 
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