August 27, 2007

TWISTER


It had been raining almost everyday for a week. Non-stop. Last Thursday, I stared in disbelief at the message on the tv screen : Tornado warning for Chicago area. What, a tornado in Chicago ? You've GOT to be kidding . So I switched over to the weather channel and sure enough it was sighted near the Eisenhower expressway !

Suddenly the sky grew very dark and 80 mph winds whipped the trees nearly to the ground. An eerie feeling came over me as scenes from my childhood flashed through my mind : Twister. How many countless hours had I spent underground in a storm cellar waiting for one to pass over ? I sometimes feel that I spent so much time in a hole I could be a mole.

I am terrified of severe thunderstorms, lightning and tornadoes because I've seen the damage they have done. Neighbors homes totally destroyed, barns ripped off their foundations and sent through the air to the next county, huge trees uprooted and dead chickens everywhere.

My first thoughts were to go to the lower level for protection but almost as soon as the announcement was made, the storm subsided. Then came the tv coverage of 300,000 chicagoans out of electricity, huge trees felled everywhere, roof collapses and homes flooded in the suburban areas.

Was it really a twister or just a funnel cloud ? No one seems to know. One thing's for sure : It was a hell of a storm. We were lucky in our neighborhood but not far away in Lincoln Park it looked like a war zone. The weather this August has really been one for the record books.


14 comments:

  1. I've lived in this house for 14 years & I've never had water in my basement - until Thursday night. That storm was unbelieveable. My toilets were making funny noises, but we really dodged a bullet on this 1. 2 of my neighbors, across the street & 1 house over, and the other 2 doors down, had sewer water gushing out of their slop sinks & basement floor drains. They ended up with 4" of sewer water in their basements. We had only a slight puddling as a result of our sump pump being unable to keep up. My next-door-neighbor's front lawn nearly completely disappeared under water and my driveway started to flood at the height of the storm as the street drain could not accomodate all the water. And we were the lucky ones. Thousands of trees have been downed in Mount Prospect, Rolling Meadows & Bartlett. I just want the ground to dry out enough so I can start planting things.

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  2. Hi and welcome to Sweet Home and Garden. I've been in my home for almost forty years and we've been very fortunate not to have water come in even when it rained 10 inches one August.

    I think a few days of nice sunshine will dry up some of the water.

    I feel sorry for all the people who were damaged during the storm.

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  3. It seems particulary bad in Chicago, and you have my sympathies. Down here in Indy, still dry, "moderate drought" they say. Happy to hear all is well with you, twisters are not to be ignored!

    Carol at May Dreams Gardens

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  4. Oh my goodness, Carolyn Gail. I'm glad to hear you were okay--hearing the stories out of Chicago, I figured you were out of power at the very least!

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  5. Hi Carol,

    Thanks for stopping by. I thought you would have gotten some of the rain we had.

    Many people still don't have electricity and their homes have been damaged by flooding, but thank goodness no one lost their life.

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  6. Hi Kim,

    I know you've had it bad in Ohio as well.

    We've been fortunate not to have any water in our basement since we've lived in this house the past 40 years.

    I think now that August is at its end that the rain will subside as well.

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  7. My brother lives in Gary and was telling me over the weekend how weird it was to see the expressway closed. That must have been wild. Glad you dodged the storm.

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  8. Thanks. It was pretty scary but the sun has been out the last few days and that certainly helps.

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  9. Those tornados in Alabama were frightening. We seemed to be in the direct path of just about every one that came through Tuscaloosa at our old house.

    I'm glad to know you fared the storm well and are O.K.

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  10. We must have been in the same path as well, but then, Alabama ranks very high in the distance it's tornadoes go, and the deaths they cause.

    Thanks for visiting.

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  11. My Chicago-area relatives have a few stories to tell about flooded basements, power outages and washed out drives - but I'm glad you escaped the bad stuff, Carolyn!
    I don't know anyone else who has lived in Chicago for such a long time without the basement flooding at least once.

    Annie at the Transplantable Rose

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  12. Thanks, Annie. I know that we are fortunate indeed not to ever have had a flooded basement during 40 years of some very heavy August floods and just a block away they did.

    I hope your relatives didn't get too much damage. Flooded basements are just awful.

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  13. A twister was sighted in West
    Chicago, I have seen the damages
    it caused along the way. Since
    West Chicago is only 10 minutes
    from my house, what a sight it
    left behind.

    -Your Daughter Cathy

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  14. I was lucky because the tornado actually touched down in my town in the western burbs, but we only had some power outages and fallen trees. It was scary and it took me 4 hours to get home from Evanston to the west burbs.

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