Stormy Weather

I've never seen as bad a storm as we had last night. The wind and rain looked like video footage from a hurricane, and we had near-constant lightning. Usually, I find storms enjoyable (or sleep right through them) but this time I was eager for the shelter of our basement.

It was pretty spooky downstairs because water was spraying from cracks in the walls. The wind was pushing the rain (and branches/debris) up against our house, and the gutters were overflowing. All of that water went straight down the foundation walls.

The men of my road gathered this morning to clear trees for safe passage.
But not before the kiddos had some fun.
When I finally left our neighborhood around 1:30 this afternoon, clean-up was still underway. Forts and trampolines were overturned, fences have been ripped apart, roofs sport tarp patches, and corn is laying flat in the fields. Trees and power lines are down all over the place (even more than from the awful ice storm over the winter).

What's crazy is that these 80 MPH winds were focused on a very small area. Three miles away, people don't even realize that any severe weather occurred.