Monday, September 15, 2008

Goodbye rain, hello sunshine

It was a long weekend. For the first time in the 26 years that we've lived in Texas, we experienced a tropical storm. Ike came north from Houston straight to Longview before veering east. The rain was constant but not a downpour. It was the soggy ground and wind that contributed to pine trees swaying like palm trees and breaking like toothpicks all over town.

Our power was out for a couple days and the first day we heard a loud crack close by. We went out the back and saw this in our neighbor's yard:
A huge oak tree had fallen onto our neighbor's house.  It fell across the entire house, crushing his kitchen and trapping his car inside his garage.  He had actually been heading to the kitchen when it happened.  This tree is so big that he can't even get a tarp over the roof to protect from further damage.  They first have to get the tree out.  
It looks like this in a lot of places around town.  We spent a long day yesterday picking up debris, mopping up water and raking and raking and raking up pine needles.  The good news is that the front yard is finished and looks great.  And the porch is mopped and cleaned.  All the neighbors were working in their yards yesterday so our street looks back to normal.  That's a nice thing because so many other streets still look like a tropical storm came through.
Kevin and I are sore today!  But we are most grateful that we're all safe and sound. 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ugh! Major tropical storm damage in Longview! Who knew?

How cool that your neighborhood pulled together and got things cleaned up. We've managed to avoid this so far ... but it's still early in the hurricane season ...

Jean

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Longview, Texas
In the autumn of my life, I am very content.

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