Windstorm 2008 - Sept 14

It was a Sunday morning, and Jenna, her mother, and aunt had stayed the night with us. Brady had gone out to get us bagels; when he got back we asked him what the weather was like (trying to decide what to wear), and he commented that it was nice, but breezy. Little did we know what was in store for us the rest of that day!

The ladies, Cecilia, and I headed out to a consignment sale around 11 am. Brady was right; it was a breezy day. We were shopping for a couple hours; I got through the line first, so I headed out on my own to get Cecilia and her stroller all packed up in the car and pull around to pick everyone else up at the door. When I got to the exit door, I couldn't get it open. I thought for sure it must have been locked or something, so I tried another one - same thing. A lady came up from outside and started pulling it with all of her might, and the door opened. It was the wind keeping it closed!

I start to make my way to my car when one of the shirts I bought flew out from the stroller basket. Within seconds, it was about 30 yards in the opposite direction as my car. I walk toward it, and it blew away further. I realized at that point I was going to have to run if I wanted it, so I did! There I was running in the parking lot with Cecilia in her stroller chasing after this shirt that kept blowing further and further away. I found out later that Jenna and her family had seen me through the windows and were wondering what I was doing! I ended up having to off-road it with her stroller into this field to finally got it about 100 yards from where I started! It was very comical! I had about 200 yards to go to get to my car, and I could hardly make my way through the wind with the stroller - literally. The canopy kept flying back, and when it did Cecilia's eyes got really big and blinked a mile a minute! It was scary and funny all at the same time; I almost felt like I had to be on candid camera or something! I just kept telling myself to get her in the car and everything would be okay, and it was. On the way back to my house, Jenna's mom and aunt rode in the backseat with Cecilia and were picking "dirt particles" off of her!

Entering our neighborhood, we saw downed tree after downed tree. It was crazy; it really felt like something out of a movie. Our neighbors were out chasing their shingles and siding that were blowing off. Some neighborhood men (including Brady) were trying to hold up a tree with rope to keep it from falling on a house; they ended up getting/pulling it down in the opposite direction. The wind got up to about 80 mph, which are considered hurricane force.

Much of the city ended up being without power for at least a few days and many for up to a week. It was the largest power outage in the history of the state. Gas stations and grocery stores (other stores as well) were closed; restaurants were running out of food b/c so many people were eating out. Luckily, we did not lose power, but my parents did. So my mom, dad, Marilou, Brendan (poor baby was only a week old), and each of their dogs stayed with us until they got power back on Thurs. It was a crazy, but fun week.


A pic to document the crazy week!


Even Cecilia had to share her bed at times!


Just a cute pic of Cecilia that week