Just two days ago I was talking about May Day and celebrating the changing seasons and last night another spring storm came raging through like a stampeding herd of buffalo. Last February, just before I had my surgery, a severe windstorm damaged a section of our fence along one side of the house and weakened the rest of it. It took us about a month to get all the estimates and the information so that our insurance company would cover the claim and replace that length of fencing. About a week ago, that new fence was completed.
Violent Storm
During last night’s storm, winds exceeding 84 miles per hour raged around our house. The tornado sirens could be heard vaguely in the distance. My husband and I both grew up here in Texas, we know what it’s like when a terrific thunderstorm blows in and the potential damage that a tornado can do. We couldn’t get the Weather Channel because we have a satellite and the storm was creating interference. We could see a frozen map on the screen with our area in the thick of the storm.
It’s important during times like this to be prepared and act before the winds which were pushing our trampoline across the yard, pushing our trash cans around and laying trees down do more damage. We took our portable DVD player, blankets and pillows and tucked our daughter away in an internal closet along with a couple of the slower moving dogs. We put the other dogs in another internal bathroom and when the sirens got louder, we tucked ourselves in there with her and we waited.
Fence Collapse
My husband stepped out to check on the storm conditions and we heard the satellite coming back on when there was a pretty loud crack and a thump. We looked out our bedroom window to see portions of our neighbor’s tree in our yard and the fence that separates our yards lying down on its side – about four sections of it.
No, it wasn’t the fence we replaced, it was the opposite side and if that was the only damage we sustained, we are grateful – but we just replaced the other side of the fence. I called my neighbor to check on her and her kids, they were fine and I called another friend in our neighborhood to make sure she and her family was okay.
Storms Come and Storms Go
But it’s the debris afterwards we have to clean up from. Our area has been going through a drought for over 18 months and as welcome as all the rain is, the torrential power of the storms we’ve seen roll through is very impressive. Today, we’ll head outside, clear away the debris from the tree and see what we can do to get that dividing fence wall back up – to keep our dogs in and more.
Still, the look my husband and I shared last evening was identical – our fence? Again? Seriously?
How is your spring going so far?
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