Saturday, August 25, 2007

It's a twister! It's a twister!


Lawn Ornament
Originally uploaded by bredlo
So while we were sitting around in New Hampshire, eating lobster and swatting mosquitoes, a tornado or a microburst or some kind of weather insanity struck the Chicago area.

This house is two blocks from my house.

I called my next door neighbor and V. the turtle-sitter. (yes, we have a friend who comes to the house and takes care of Toby the turtle. So sue me.)

My neighbor walked around our yard and assured us that although the yard is a mess, and a tree is down in the back yard, nothing hit the house. The next door neighbors on the other side weren't so lucky; a huge tree fell and crushed their chimney and part of the roof.

I swear this is because they had had extensive renovations done, whereas we? Had not.

V. the turtle sitter, who has a key, let herself in. She tells me there is no flooding or leaking. All is well.

This is not true of much of the rest of the neighborhood.


That house one is pretty much across the street from my kids' school. Three blocks from my house.

The rectory of a local church--about four blocks from us.


The root ball on this tree was so big that when it fell, it brought the sidewalk up with it.

Many thanks to bredlo on Flickr for his photographs.

12 comments:

  1. I like your label.

    My kids would be so bummed that they missed all the excitement.

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  2. Yipe!

    We had a thunderstorm a couple of nights ago that literally shook the house. Amazingly, Mr. Lemony, the kids and even dog slept through it.

    The storm dropped snow on nearby mountains. Freaky to see snow while driving the kids to school in August.

    I think you guys got this storm yesterday. Sorry.

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  3. And to think - I thought I was going to fly out of O'Hare with that going on.

    So glad your home is okay Poppy. Friday night, it hit us here in Michigan - about 20 miles up the road at least two tornados.

    It seems to have fizzled out somewhat now - heading east.

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  4. The urge to get out a chainsaw and denude my yard of trees is strong.

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  5. Devastating, yet completely local: I'd never seen anything like this until yesterday, when driving home, a couple of miles from the house, there were several trees downed like that.
    Absolutely wild!
    N.

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  6. Man, that is some serious damage. I remember those kinds of storms from when I lived in the Midwest.

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  7. I was hoping you guys were okay. We were without power for 4 days, but I'm considering us lucky. No trees on our house, no water in our basement.

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  8. We are OK, and our house is fine. I'll post a picture of the tree that fell so accurately onto the driveway, touching the house not at all.

    It's a big tree. I won't be able to get the car out of the driveway until the tree guys come and get rid of it. But we are so incredibly lucky. It fell where we usually park our van.

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  9. Yikes! That's quite a mess - glad you and the house are okay though!

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  10. Thanks for dropping by Vinapedia. I hope you like the site.

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  11. P.,

    Will this affect our (potential) plans for the 29th?

    -J.

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Gentle Readers:

For the time being, I have turned off comment moderation. Please don't spam; it's not nice.

xxx, Poppy.