Wednesday, February 11, 2009

The Aftermath

I imagine you might see Tobe or myself on the late night news sometime soon or possibly on a cable-access show titled, "How Not to React in the Face of a Storm."

Despite the fact we both hold higher level degrees, neither of us really is quite intelligent when it comes to behavior during thunderstorms. Last night our area was scheduled to be hit by severe weather. Due to the technology of meteorology these days, we were told what time exactly the storm would hit our neighborhood. 9:26pm was our scheduled time. Around 9:05pm Tobe and I began making preparations.

Currently only one car resides in the garage at casa de phillips due to the double jogging stroller, the single jogging stroller, the Little Tikes cozy coupe, the red push car, the tricycle, the umbrella stroller, and the large assortment of books (which had to be relocated when our study became Evelyn's room) that live on the other side of the garage. Yesterday at bible study a lady who sits next to me informed our table she was praying for hail (her husband owns a paintless dent removal shop) so to be sure to safely secure our cars when the severe weather hit later on. She seemed to be quite the Godly lady with an active prayer life, so last night Tobe and I quickly tossed children's items aside (meaning we stacked them on top of my car...sorry, no picture.) and pulled his car into the garage minutes before the storm was set to hit.

Then we quickly transformed into the worst storm victims possible.

With tornado seirns wailing, Tobe went outside for a quick look.

Meanwhile, I sat inside (flashlight ready) and complained that the storm was interfering with Dateline on NBC (it was the octuplet's mom interview...I am a bit fascinated by the craziness of this whole scenario). I did question at one point if we should wake the kids and place them in the bathtub, but that was only because it was a commercial break.

We did get about three minutes of severe weather, just enough to lose another pear tree in our front yard, the roof off our Little Tikes cabin, a portion of our back fence, something off the top of our house, and about 15 minutes of Dateline.

Here are a few pictures of our damage. Apparently a tornado did touch down relatively close to casa de phillips, but fortunately no one was injured in our area (some others in Oklahoma were not so fortunate. Keep those families in your prayers)

Our second pear tree damaged due to the storms
I was pretty angry about losing this tree.
I had people come cut the rest down and chop it up for us this afternoon. Most likely we are going to have to have the third..and final..pear tree removed before we lose it in a storm.
Boo!
I miss having actual trees around and it was nice to have these three semi-large trees in our front yard. We are considering replanting with Magnolia trees, whenever it comes the season that one plants Magnolias (I do not have a green thumb nor any knowledge of planting trees)
Our Log Cabin...minus a section of the roof
(It has since been reclaimed and put back on. I was happy it did not get bent during the storm)


The section of the fence that is down. Although still standing, the section next to the down portion was also damaged in the storm.
This came off the roof of our house



Little Tikes chairs were scattered through the yard...fortunately none came through the kitchen windows

Evelyn surveying the damage to her home, probably making a list for the insurance company


4 comments:

Jennifer Schroeder said...

Glad to hear you guys survived the storm. It worries me slightly that a woman is actively praying for hail. Missed you guys, too, last weekend. I was in San Diego at a conference.

Patrick said...

Glad you only missed 15 minutes of Dateline ;-) We have a healthy magnolia that we planted in April. You could probably plant one there in late March. I'm also glad you were able to reclaim the cabin roof!

Amy said...

Ha! Forgot to change over from my hubby's account.

Jordan said...

My sister, who lives relatively close to ya'll, spent about 30 mintues in her bathtub about the same time. She lost some limbs from trees, too, but everyone was safe. Glad to hear ya'll were, too.

I actually miss those severe thunderstorms! :)