Derecho

About 10 days ago we awoke to a siren sounding at about 4 a.m.  Pretty frightening to wake up to that!  Our area got blasted with very powerful straight line winds which I've since learned is called a "derecho."  I've been told that in our area the winds reached 139 mph!  We were very lucky.  We lost some very large tree limbs, our patio table was smashed and we had a couple days of clean-up work but really -- considering the damage in the surrounding area -- we're just fine.  One of my cousins lost the roof on her home, a family from our church lost their entire home (which was only 8 years old), and several farmsteads lost every building on the farm.  They're not even able to estimate the livestock or crop damage yet.

I honestly didn't get too shook up until we took an early morning drive to check on an elderly relative.  There were power line poles broken off and scattered across the country road like twigs -- one after the other after the other..........  Power lines laying all over the roads and in the fields, trees broken off (not uprooted, mind you -- BROKEN OFF!) and pieces and parts of building and farm equipment scattered all over the place.

It was a number of days before the folks out in the country got their power back and of course, this time of year the heat and humidity were terrible.  

I'll say it again.  We were VERY LUCKY.  We had some huge branches on our roof but they didn't do any damage and our patio table was smashed.  Big deal.  No one lost their life that we've heard of and that's a true blessing.

Here's our poor patio table.  I have no idea where the milk jugs came from but they ended up on our deck.