Crazy weather tonight...

What a crazy evening!! We decided to take the kids outside so they could run in the sprinklers while we planted some monkey grass. While we were out there, a few sprinkles of rain...and then some fat raindrops...then lots of fat raindrops. So, at that point Brooks went to the garage to turn off the sprinklers. In the 30 seconds or so it took for him to walk to the garage, it started hailing (on poor Cooper who was still sitting in the grass)! So, I grabbed Coops and just then the most severe rain I have EVER seen...after watching the news last night they called it a microburst. Which is when a wall of rain hits the ground and then forces itself back up. I have a video from News9 for you to see, but I'll tell you, that looks a bit calmer than what I saw, because I couldn't see our fence through the rain! Nonetheless, check out this link to see what I'm talking about: www.news9.com/global/story.asp?s=13023752

The trees were swirling, the slide was blowing across the yard and then it was just a white wall of rain and I couldn't see anything. At this point I'm yelling at the kids to get inside and Brooks is hearing the commotion and coming in from the garage to see what's going on and with both doors open we created a wind tunnel. Computer paper flying, kids sliding on the tile and crying, pantry door flinging open and food flying about, mommy yelling at the door that won't shut because a shoe from outside flew at the door and wouldn't allow it to shut...leaves flying in the house!! It was CRAZY!! All of this and the power went out too so then we were climbing on Bianca (the Outlook), trying to reach the manual release on the garage so that we could secure the garage...wow, what a whirlwind of activity all in about two minutes time!

The neighborhood is a mess with most fences torn down...either broken or metal polls bent. Most houses around us have big flaps of roof lifted off. A few neighbors have damaged garage doors and gutters or lights missing. One neighbor's whole front window shattered and another lost their trampoline (they did find it four blocks away and that's the same picture on the News9 link)!!

We've been told by other neighbors who drove around that there is a 1/2 mile stretch down Robinson where all the lights are down on the ground and the road is closed. Someone else said that they saw grocery baskets from wal-mart all over the main streets. We'll do our own sight-seeing tomorrow!

The pantry door that blew open and all the racks that are messed up or missing food!

Some how some boxes of noodles ended

up in the garage!!!

Part of the mess that ended up on the floor!
We were so lucky that our fence is still standing on all sides...across the street and to the south of us weren't so lucky.
This is not the missing trampoline, but this is two backyards with the fence gone between the two houses.

Not sure what went through their roof, but the other hole was twice as big.
This is were the window was...
Down our main street, fences down everywhere!

This shows you how strong the wind was...

So, we are blessed that nothing more happened to us other than a few crazy minutes of chaos. Rachel is still a bit nervous...she really doesn't like severe weather and spent the evening in daddy's arms. Eric is okay with a few nervous moments, but mostly fine. He enjoyed walking around with mommy asking if everyone was okay! Coops, oh, he's fine. Just wanted to go to have his bottle and go to bed. Speaking of bed, I think it's time for mommy and daddy to wind down!!