When we got home, it still hadn't started to rain. I had just bought ladder ball, so the boys and I started to build it. The neighbor boy was down at our house too. A few minutes into our building time, the boy's mom yelled from her porch that we should go inside. "We're okay," I shouted back. "No, really. You should get inside," she urged. I looked up and saw a very dark sky. "Okay, boys let's just take all this stuff inside," I told them.
As soon as we got in the house, the storm started. And it was a BAD one! The rain was coming down very hard and it was extremely windy. A few minutes later, the lights started to flash. Bob yelled out, "Hey. There goes our swing across the yard." I said, "No way." I looked and sure enough my wooden swing was tumbled over like it was made of plastic. "Oh my goodness," I said.
Bob ran into the office to look at my husband's weather center. The wind rate was rising quickly. It was almost 40 miles per hour! Then, our table started to slide across our deck like tumbleweed. Fortunately, the umbrella got wedged under our other table and it stopped. A few moments later the power went out.
The storm raged on and Bob was getting nervous. I sent him, SJ and the neighbor boy down into our basement. I gave them flashlights so they could see. Bob was concerned that it was a tornado. He told me that when the wind drops suddenly and the temperature keeps soaring that a tornado is coming.
After 30 minutes, the bulk of the storm was over. I went outside to stand up the table and assess any damages. We were lucky. I had lost some cushions (which were later found at the other end of my neighborhood) and my swing frame was apart. Other neighbors didn't fare as well. They had some damage to their tables and decks.
Others in our community had trees that were struck by lightning and twisted from the winds. I heard on the news (via the battery operated radio) that we experienced a microburst. I called the electric company to report the power outage and was told that we could expect power by Saturday at midnight! That was 2 1/2 days later! I was hoping it would come on sooner.
I was able to use my stove (gas powered) to make dinner and we lit our hurricane oil lamps. The boys were glued to their electronics until their power died. SJ kept whining about when the power was going to come back on. "Soon," we kept telling him. When their electronics finally died, Bob decided to bring down some board games.
This was my favorite part of the power outage. We played Sorry. We played before my husband got home and then again with him. It was kind of nice to sit down as a family and not have someone engaged electronically (I am guilty of this too!). We listened to the Pirate game on the radio and then called it a night.
The house was so quiet. As I was lying in bed, I thought maybe it is nice to take a break from being plugged in constantly (maybe just for a few hours).
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