Thursday, July 17, 2008

Allow me for a moment to go OOC

As many of you are probably aware, Christine was unable to attend the anniversary party for her and Edward on the 15th. Below are some photos to show you what was going on here in RL that made it impossible for me to be in world.



A few trees at my parent's farm


Someone's t.v. tower


I don't think those trees were planted quite like that...


A pivot irrigation sprinkler...not quite looking like it should.


One of several downed power lines.


The cenotaph in Burdett, which is 11kms from where I live. They had a tornado touch down there.


More of the cenotaph, different angle.


A house in Burdett...I think


Marks from the storm.

Now these next pics are taken of a house that I sold to a family this past spring. It was a lovely farm home, with brick on the outside and well protected by trees. The family was in the home when the storm struck, but are ok.


The front of the home. There was a porch area with a brick planter and climbing vines on the front at one time.


The garage area.


An uprooted tree in the yard.


The garage sidewall...or what's left of it.


The backyard. Pieces of the roof everywhere.


More of the backyard, notice the big building in the background. It would seem someone just peeled back part of the roof (it's not a very good pic, I know)


The front of the house again.


Needless to say, I feel very VERY lucky that the worst damage my own home suffered was some holes in my front screen door and my flowers being decimated. None of our windows were broken, our roof is intact and for the most part, our trees are fine. Everyone is pitching in and working together to get things cleared up.

So, I'm sorry Christine missed the party, but I think it's a good excuse to have another one, just because. :-)

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh wow! I'm glad you are ok. Looks like a real mess.

Fuzzball Ortega said...

Glad to know the family in the house was ok.

Pretty lucky you didn't get the worst of it.

itsdavidvc said...

Oh Dear! I'm very much relieved you're alright!

Eva Bellambi said...

I am so glad that you and your family are unharmed...and that the damage to your property was relatively minimal!

Blessings on all of you!!

Eladrienne Laval said...

I am glad that you are safe! Take care!

Edward Pearse said...

Was the last house the lady who had been told there were no tornadoes in that area?

Glad you're OK. Hope to catch up with you soon

Hotspur O'Toole said...

Good Lord, that looks horrendous. I am very glad you and yours survived this calamity intact and with only some new screens to hang and new flowers to plant as a result(?). What a shame about your neighbors, though.. is there some form of disaster relief in your neck of the woods?

Christine McAllister Pearse said...

Actually, my dear, that wasn't the lovely lady who is spazzing about me saying we rarely get tornados, her house only suffered a little bit of siding removal and some trees are now leaning a bit more than they were in the past, and according to the "experts" (none of whom were here during the storm to see the funnel clouds touching down, etc) have decreed that it was a very powerful straight line wind shear or something of that nature. Call it what you will, it was very desctructive.

I think, Hotspur, from what I've heard around town, that insurance will cover the damages, which is good. However I've heard that a few farmers didn't have hail insurance for their crops, so good bye this year's income for a few of them. The good thing about small towns is that we are very good at banding together and sharing what resources we have to take care of each other. I know my mom has donated some of the furniture in their basement to a family who's ceiling collapsed into their home.

As for my flowers, I did have a few hanging baskets survive, mostly because they were under the big elm tree in our back yard and tipped over, so the hail struck their baskets, rather than the flowers. I've put one out front and the other 3 are still in the backyard...however, it doesn't take much before I'm hauling them into safety, if I see storm clouds brewing in the west! :-D

Corgi said...

I remember post-Katrina (she struck Miami as a freakish 2), and post-Wilma, and taking the whole week while work had no power to hand-saw trees out of my back yard. I see stuff like this, I wish I could come help.

I'm very glad you're not the one who needed it, though... if that makes sense.

Tanarian