Ivan

Reading everywhere about the devastation of Ivan. Hard to believe what Floridians have suffered this summer and now flooding all up and down the east coast.

Two co-workers had water damage in their homes…they both live along the river which is seeing the worst flooding in almost a decade. Our total personal loss…so far…has been the apples off the tree in the back yard. They weren’t ready to pick so I left them and most were knocked to the ground in the wind. But there was significant rainfall just to the north and west of us so streams and the river are breaking records, but the sump pump kept our basement dry.

Our extended family has been lucky also. We have lots of relatives in FL and so far the worst of each storm has gone to the south, or north, or west of them. They lost power for short times and had tree limbs to clean up, but that was it. My SIL owns a trailer right on the water in FL and although houses and trailers all around were destroyed hers, is sitting there waiting for her to return this winter…I hope. She and my BIL bought that right before he died. She spent one winter there without him and had just returned last year when she got the call that Alex (her 3 yo grandson) had a cancerous brain tumor. She drove straight through to VA to be with her daughter and family and has been a real godsend throughout this ordeal. Alex is doing real well now and I pray she’ll get a much-deserved break this winter…for at least a month or two.

So I am ever so grateful that my nuclear AND extended family has done well through these times.

My DH and I are wondering though….He works in a community center that includes a Senior Daycare Facility. They get direct calls from Emergency Management in crises and Friday they got a call to move everyone to a safe part of the building immediately. Fortunately most of the Seniors had left for the day, but he helped move staff and the few elderly people into the designated room and then he went outside to check. Someone at the school across the way began screaming at him to get inside. He looked over and TWO funnel clouds were coming across a field right at the building. They disappeared into the clouds before they got to his building.

Once the Emer Mgt people said it was safe, he and his staff headed home. He’d driven a couple miles up the road into an area where it was obvious a tornado had just gone through…debris all over the road, power lines down, one utility pole snapped like a toothpick. He’s driving along carefully when “WHOMP” wind starts throwing his brand-new (four day old) truck all over the road, bouncing it up and down, and it got pitch dark. He’s trying to control the truck when a transformer on the other side of the road blows. He sees the cars ahead coming towards him all pulling over to the side of the road, but he’s just trying to hold on to the steering wheel. Finally he gets out of it. It was at least a wind shear but maybe a small tornado that actually hit him!!! Last I heard a total of 17 tornados had been confirmed in that area Friday evening. I told him that it was a sign that he shouldn’t have bought that truck. We traded his Subaru and my dad’s old truck in on it and the payments aren’t bad, but I dread getting into ANY payment while we still have a kid in college, and a daughter talking marriage. We’re stuck with it now! Of course, the Subaru isn’t as heavy and it might have been thrown more in that wind so maybe it’s good he was in the truck!

Again, I’m just thankful that my nuclear AND extended family made it through okay. Now to watch for Jeanne and Kent!