Chainsaws and chippers. The sounds of cleanup dominate our little North Tarrant County neighborhood this afternoon. The thunderstorms that raged through our area early this morning packed 80 mph winds and lots of lightning and thunder. We lost two-and-a-half fence panels, a couple dozen shingles, a flag pole, and two hours of sleep. And our DISH is apparantly off line which means we don’t have any TV. But that’s it.
Most of our neighbors in our Ember Oaks Subdivision, though, fared much worse. Trees and fences and roofs are down all over the place. On just our street, Ember Oaks Drive, and Fireside, the street that intersects ours about half a block north, I’ve counted 28 trees with major damage, 17 fences missing at least one panel, and five roofs with missing shingles.
As always, click on the pic to get the full size. These first two are of Dave’s big tree next door to the North:
These are from our own fence on both sides of our house.
These show a little of the roof damage to our house. I haven’t checked the other sides yet. Hopefully this front is all I’ll need to fix.
These are of other trees on Ember Oaks:
This is looking north up Ember Oaks toward Fireside:
These are from the corner of Fireside & Ember Oaks, half a block north of our house.
These are from Fireside, just around the corner:
I had joked last night that the faithful few in the Oasis class at Legacy were the ones ignoring the overly-excited TV weathermen who were telling us the sky was falling. I said we all knew our houses wouldn’t be destroyed and the end wouldn’t come until well after midnight. And when the walls of our upstairs bedrooms began moving at just after 3am and we heard the cracking of the trees, I was afraid maybe I had been right. We’re very thankful to God today for keeping us safe through the storm.
“My soul finds rest in God alone;
my salvation comes from him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation;
he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.
~Psalm 62:1-2
Hopefully you and your families were delivered through the storms OK. I must hurry home now and do my best to readjust our DISH to 1) avoid the $29 service fee and the delay until Saturday afternoon for repair, and 2) to make sure I can watch the Stars’ opening round playoff game tonight against Anaheim. I can’t miss tonight’s playoff game because there may only be four or five total for Dallas. Carrie-Anne and Whitney are going to AAC tonight for the Mavericks and Jazz. Bud Hale gave us the tickets (thanks, Bud!) but C-A’s going instead of me because she’s never been to a Mavs game before. They’re going to have a blast. And I get Valerie and Carley all to myself tonight. I’m not sure yet what we’re going to do. I know it’ll have to be something fun and special. And I know it’s NOT going to be Chuck E. Cheese’s.
Peace,
Allan
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