We got the extreme storm system running from the bottom to the top of Michigan yesterday. Had been to a birthday party, not watching weather at all. Then the phones went off with tornado announcement, TAKE SHELTER NOW!
YIKES!! Horses were still out, so we figured it would be a few minutes. Usually warning is 20 minutes before weather arrives. I got one inside and heard the train noise! No green sky, so I went to get another horse. Halter was on, half buckled and the storm OPENED UP. Filly charged around haltered horse, pulled lead rope loose with her chest and the four horses did a panic turn away, and then the water arrived!! Wind and hard rain and sleet shoved me back towards the gate, no getting any horses now! I got thru the gate, locked it solid, then into the barn and pulled doors almost closed. Looked back out, the four were rump to the west wind, heads down as the wind and water hit them. They respected the fence, usually hot, did not push forward into it with wind (later said to be 70mph) behind them. Thank the Lord! The 3 boys in the other barnyard ran back out into their pasture, put rumps to the wind, heads down to just endure the weather too.
I stood inside the barn, holding the sliding doors down, since I could not reach the rail and tire we usually use the hold the door bottoms tight in wind. Luckily I was on the east end away from direct west wind, so less fight with doors. Kept thinking “This is not the best place to be in a tornado! BUT getting to get to the house with basement looked even more dangerous!” Storm went on for about 20 minutes, then decreased in water and wind volume. Husband came over from the other barn, where he had been leaning against the southern door to keep weather out. Only has a latch on the outside, since it is closed unless we are going in or out. I got my rail and tire to anchor big doors down. Then started bringing horses in as rain was tapering off.
They were very cold, some shivering. Totally wet to the skin. That quit pretty quick as they started eating hay. Temps were 65F, so no one was going to freeze. Horse with halter, dragging rope was pretty calm about it, not silly which I was VERY grateful to see. She came in first, being already “dressed.” They all seemed glad to come in, not overly stressed, listening as we walked in, no kites to handle. Even the scared filly behaved well with the wind and weather gone.
With horses in, we took time to look around, view things. I think we got 4-6 inches of rain because the big drainage ditch was FULL and running fast. Ditch only goes from empty to full when we get that much rain in a downpour. Field drains into a reserved low place, giving us a big pond for about 24hours, as it slowly drains off into the ditch. Looking a bit further, the house across the street had the big (4ft across trunk) old Oak had come down on the front porch and dormer window of second story. We saw the owner, no family, out looking at the mess, figured he was OK. He had “been planning” to remove (not healthy) tree for 2 years, never got it done. Lots of black inside the broken-off stump and trunk, so tree was rotten inside.
I took a walk around our house looking for torn shingles, big branches, glad to not find any. I was picking up a dog toy while facing the neighbors and realized the backyard view was much bigger! Holy cow, three fourths of the privacy fence was down!! All the panels were laying neatly on the ground, still connected. I walked over for a closer look, saw all the posts had snapped off in the wind. The house had blocked the wind for the panels still upright. That appears to be the major storm damage to us.
There was some hot tape blown down, so that got put back on the insulators this morning. I went out and walked perimeter fences, picked up some branches and sticks along the edges. All those were from the neighbors dead trees that fell inside our fences. We may ask if we can take those trees down for them. Just persistently dropping stuff into the pastures. So we had things fairly well picked up by noon. After lunch husband took the privacy fence panels apart, got them up off the ground (and neighbors new little trees the deer are eating). Trees looked a bit sad, but straightened up thru the day so they look like survivors now. Very flexible with all the rain, thank goodness. Husband plans to redo the fenceposts, put panels back up. Might need one new panel to steal replacement boards from to fix other panels that got boards broke in their fall. Will need to repaint and put dog wire back on to cover uneven bottoms since ground is not flat under the fence.
No power but the generator is working well, just noisy. Might have power by Tuesday. 60% of the County has lost power. Other local areas got worse hits. They think we had tornados go thru on radar. Supposed to have had one a mile south touch down, but in an empty field. A couple trees down across the road, no buildings damaged. Ditch water is way down today, soil has absorbed all it can, it will all be runoff when it rains again. Put my rain gauge out to know how much we really get from now on! Dogs are confined to the fenced side yard until privacy fence is fixed. Squirrels are raiding the backyard bird feeders, making dogs bark because they can’t chase them!
Brother up North just missed the edge of the ice storm. Sent videos from their news showing trees, wires snapping under the weight of the ice which is 1 1/2inches thick. Closed the Mackinac Bridge because of falling ice. BIG, weighty chunks that can smash thru a windshield or even a car roof!
So feeling pretty blessed to have made it thru with almost no damage. Watching that long red storm line advancing East across the State was pretty scary. Hope other folks also got out fairly lightly.
. Glad you faired so well! Blessed, agreed.
