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We got done at work around 11:30 p.m. Friday night and headed home, apprehensive about (1) being on the roads when only an occasional streetlight is working, and (2) what we'd see when we got home.
The drive home was slow, deliberate and an eye-opener. The canopy over the gas pumps at a 7-11 about halfway to our house was lying on its side, and trees and limbs littered the roads.
We couldn't drive all the way up to our house. All of the residential streets in our neighborhood were completely blocked by huge tree trunks and power lines lying across the road.
We parked at a church about a mile away. I grabbed my backpack, a safety strobe light I wear when I row in the dark and a mini flashlight I keep in my car, and we started walking. It was eerie, something out of The X-Files. Homeowners roamed the streets with flashlights and chainsaws, assessing the damage to their homes. Many were friendly and reminded us to watch our step as we walked as power lines crisscrossed the streets. We gawked in awe at the sights. Decades-old oak trees lay on their sides, roots exposed. Some lay on top of homes. A 3-foot-tall brick wall that paralleled the sidewalk down the road was destroyed. It looked as though a bomb had exploded in our neighborhood.
Finally, we walked up our driveway. It was littered with tree limbs and branches, so much so that we crunched twigs with every step.
Opening our front door, we breathed a sigh of relief. The cats greeted us at the door, and Urza awoke in his cage. Other than the power being out, the house was fine. We grabbed a bigger flashlight and assessed the damage in the back yard. Even more limbs blanketed the back yard, but our two staghorn ferns that hang in oak trees from chains were fine.
The pool screen is pretty much a loss; the top is about halfway peeled off. The pool is brown, full of leaves, and two huge branches are submerged, one each in the shallow and deep ends.
But if the pool screen is the only thing we lost, we are very lucky. Our neighbor catty cornered to our right has a horizontal oak tree in his front yard. There were at least 15 roof shingles we found in our front yard, but lucky for us, I don't think they're ours.
Power is still out.
Current mood: Grateful