On Thursday Dec 1st we had a windstorm. A windstorm of epic proportions...120 mph winds to be exact. I think I got just a tiny little glimpse of "hurricane force winds" and that glimpse will be enough to last me a lifetime! We had some warning so the night before we took all the little things in our yard inside (you know, the flag, a bucket we had on our patio, the garbage can, etc). We didn't even think to wheel our BBQ into the garage... after all it weighs close to 200 lbs and had a full propane tank attached. Well when full size semis are being tipped over by the dozen our BBQ didn't stand a chance. It got throw across the yard and ended up by the swing set. It blew in our laundry room window throwing glass all over the room (I was in there hanging the clothes in the washing machine on a rack since we lost our power) and may have screamed out loud just a touch as scenes from Twister flashed through my mind! We lost our antenna from the roof, our swamp cooler cover, our dartboard that was screwed into the brick wall, our wooden gate at the side of our house, and a top branch from our tree. WE WERE LUCKY. Josh had cracked our window the weekend before so we'd had Bishop fix a replacement window we had in the shed so we were only with a giant hole in our wall for a couple days 'til Nathan got it installed. Our antenna didn't hurt anyone or anything, we caught our cover before it blew away, our dartboard didn't break, the gate is fixable, and the tree branch didn't fall on our home or our fence but hung into the center of the street where Jubel Morgan hooked it up to his truck, pulled it down and Jerry Bolough had it chopped up before Nathan even made it home from work. Only the handle broke off of our BBQ which I was told very easily could have blown up if the propane tank had been hit just the right way. Our power was only off in spurts but back on for good by the afternoon while other parts of Davis County (including some people on our street) didn't have power for DAYS. Our roof didn't receive any damage while our neighbors lost most of their shingles, large sections of rain gutter and soffet. Our yard was filled with very little debris while large sheets of metal and siding were blowing all around. Metal sheds and trampolines were hopping/ crushing fences and taking out everything in their path. Our shed stayed put as did all our sections of fence while the Larsen's had a giant shed wrapped around their swing set and a large sections of their fence blown over... WE WERE LUCKY. Large trees were toppling over taking down power lines and starting home fires. The Crowther's first floor is a total loss but no one was injured and as Ann said "at least it didn't happen at night." We were BLESSED!
All afternoon men from the neighborhood gathered with trucks and chain-saws making rounds helping whomever needed it. We must have had 4 different truckloads stop to make sure we were OK. People even came to load and haul the chopped up tree limb (after we took out the large sections to dry and use for fire-wood). People really step up in times of need and I'm grateful for all the people looking out for our little family WE ARE BLESSED!
Just some finishing work, cutting foam and caulking and it'll be good as new :)
When the weather was suppose to take another turn for the worse on Sunday a letter from the area 70 was read over the pulpit in each ward asking people to help their neighbors clean up debris to avoid more damage and injury. Some wards even canceled church so that people could have time to help other's prepare. Thank goodness it wasn't as bad as predicted but again it was nice to see everyone help out in a time of need!!
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