Summer Storms

So, last night I came home from work and immediately put on my running clothes so I couldn't talk myself out of running last night. (After running, I had planned on updating the blog with pictures.) Although it looked it might rain, I checked the radar and it appeared to be going north of us. I left Colby on the couch watching TV and Tristen was at football camp. While running, Jason (who was working one of his 24 hour clincial rotations at Addison Fire Dept.) sent me a text telling me that we were going to get hit hard with rain/storms and for Tristen not to start the sprinklers tonight. I blew it off b/c the radar showed it going around us. I get back from a quick 20 minute run around the neighborhood and take a breather. I decided to go sit under our *almost* finished covered patio and read through a magazine while I cool off. While I'm sitting out there, I realize that eh, it might rain. I decided to head up to the football field early just in case they end early due to the weather. As I'm driving up there, Tristen calls me and tells me that they ended early. (We live like 2 minutes from the high school football field.) I pick him up, and we make the short drive home. No more than do I pull my car in the garage, and get inside and then I hear the tornado sirens. WHAT????????? Seriously. I thought it was just a fluke so I turn on the TV and they are talking about the storms, but I was too impatient to sit and listen further so I went to the computer and saw that CRAP....we really were under a tornado warning! Holy Crap! I called Jason right quick and put the dog in the garage. Jason said, 'I told you so!' I said, 'Ok, love you....gotta go.' The boys were in a standstill like what the heck is going on. I told Tristen to get the blankets and pillows and to put them in the bathroom. I grab the candles and flashlight, and then the power went out. The bathroom was HOT and finally I moved us to the hall. It was scary for about 15-20 minutes and then I decided all was clear. After the storm has passed and we had been without power for 2 hours, I decided that we'd go eat somewhere and at least get out of the house. The power company said restoration time was 2-4 hours at about 7;30. So, at 9 we went driving around looking at the damage and we went and ate at Rosa's to kill some time. We get back to the house around 10 and still no power. By this point the house is pitch black, so I lit the candles. The boys took showers by candlelight. LOL! I put the boys to bed and then went to bed myself. I woke up around 1am and the power was back on.

Soooooooo.......to make an even longer story short. We survived. There are trees on our street down, split in half, or small to large branches broken. Fences are down and a business that is near the entrance of our subdivision lost part of it's roof and it is lying on top of a neighbor's swingset/fence/pool. There are scattered pieces of roof all throughout that side of the neighborhood. I took more pictures last night after the storm had passed, but I haven't gotten to up load them yet. The boys and I walked the neighborhood to see all the damage and to talk to a few neighbors. Here are some snapshots I took with my phone this morning. Fortunately, the only damage I think we suffered was a broken tree branch. It flew from one side of the yard to the other side of the yard....fairly close to Tristen's large window. So....it was a scary night. I just can't believe how quickly the storm came in. I'm 99% sure there were still some kids at the football field house that had not been picked up by the time the big part of the storm blew through. There was some rotation about a mile and 1/2 from our house, so it was definitely close. My guess is that straightline winds are what came through our neighborhood and did the damage. In my 8 1/2 years in Dallas, I don't know that I've had this strong of storms come directly through my area.

One of our neighbor's trees

Same neighbor's other tree & speed limit sign

Another view of down trees

This is the only after effect that I've seen around our house. This branch came from our tree on the opposite side of the yard.