Tuesday May 15 started out like any other day around here. It was sunny and I got a few chores done around the house before I met up with Peter on Skype. I think it was raining in England that day and he told me he'd send some my way. I'd had enough storms during winter, thank you! After our chat I ran down to the polling place and voted in the primary. Then it was home to put some of the flowers Jeff bought me for Mother's Day into pots for display on the deck. While I was dividing them up I noticed the sky turning an odd gray in the distance but didn't give it much thought as it's pretty normal for rain showers to quickly come up and pass through here in Spring.
But then the wind started to kick up. All of a sudden what started out to be just another Spring storm was anything but- it was so windy I barely got the cover back on my rolling cart and was frantically searching for something to keep it down. I just barely got it covered and inside before the rain came down full-force along with pebble-sized hail. By now the trees were swaying to and fro and I heard what I thought was the cracking of one out in the woods, but couldn't see anything from the sliding doors (It turned out to be a very large branch which snapped off one of the older trees- but no structural damage). The storm carried on for about 15 minutes during which we lost our power but I assumed it would come back on in a few hours as it usually does.
Photo club was meeting that night, so I ate a cold dinner and got ready to go. The sky still looked odd, but it was apparent the storm was over. The yard looked like someone shook all the loose twigs out of the trees. I climbed into the car and headed down the road only to be greeted by this! Hmmm- it was passible and cleared the car so I decided to go for it UNTIL I came to the transformer that had been blown off its telephone pole and was laying in the middle of the road along with several live wires. A neighbor was out at the end of his driveway surveying the damage and he told me that he'd just arrived home after 3 hours of bumper to bumper traffic. Further down the road another transformer was in the road and a lady driving a van was in a ditch after dodging a tree that fell across the road.
Simply put it was a MESS! I found out later there were actually 3 trees that fell into or across the road which residents had to remove otherwise there would have been no way in or out. I turned around and went back home. I could have gotten out but there was no guarantee I'd get back in. Our wonderful neighbor hooked up his generator and we had power for the frig plus a small lamp, my laptop and enough to recharge the cell phones. What a crazy storm! It spread out about 50 miles and had winds up to 60 mph in spots. One person reported seeing a funnel cloud in Stroudsburg, but that hasn't been confirmed. Still, it looked like a tornado, acted like a tornado, and therefore, I think it was a tornado!
We knew it would be a few days before the power came back on so we "hunkered down" and made do. Friends who still had power let us do some laundry there and take a shower- God bless them!!
And on Friday (still without power) I left for the "greener pastures" of Massachusetts and my niece's college graduation after stopping off at our friend's house for another shower. I'm sure this won't be the last storm, but it sure will be one for the memory books! And thankfully for Jeff (who stayed behind due to work) the power came back on Friday evening.
What a story Ann, glad that you and Jeff are both okay and that things are getting back to normal. I hope the lady who had the car accident is okay as well.
That was one scary storm - it's just amazing how quickly they can come up. Glad the damage wasn't any worse and didn't last any longer - those days must have seemed longer than they were I'm sure! Glad you got to enjoy your trip.
Quite a story. You seem to get the extremes. Glad it is all now in the past and you can enjoy power once more. Great pic of that huge branch on the wire.
Sounds like quite a storm. We had a terrific hail storm a few weeks ago and lots of houses in our neighbourhood were severely damaged. Hail the size of golf balls and even bigger sometimes.
Thanks to one and all- your caring comments mean a lot! Funny, but when we first moved here, the storms didn't seem so frequent but that is really just my imagination!
@joansmor What you saw was from Hurricane Riley. This storm took place four days after you left- the timing of which I was very happy about.
@olivetreeann oh I meant I saw this from winter storms, etc as I was drivng to MD. Think it was a rough winter on our woods. And I was happy to have missed that storm. When I got home I was never taking a road trip again and now my mind is thinking about it again.
I took a horticulture class once many years ago. The instructor was a weather buff too. He told us that if there thunder & lightening & hail there is a strong potential for a tornado. I guess up until then I took those thunder storms for granted. They can turn deadly fast. While we haven't had too many tornados in our town, they occur fairly close by. We have what they call "straight line winds" which does a lot a damage similar to what you describe.
Thanks to one and all- your caring comments mean a lot! Funny, but when we first moved here, the storms didn't seem so frequent but that is really just my imagination!
@joansmor What you saw was from Hurricane Riley. This storm took place four days after you left- the timing of which I was very happy about.
@randystreat Thanks Kathy! Yes, it's unusual but possible to have a tornado pretty much anywhere if the conditions are right.