Hit by Windstorm Ike
Pictured above is a tree that was uprooted by the office. Maybe they’ll be able to prop it back up and save it.
Today, started off pretty normal. I got up, ate, did some cleaning and, after that, started to get to work on the computer.
The power flickered out, but was back on seconds later. After that, I noticed that the lights sort of flickered now and again. A couple more times, the power went out, but came right back on. Finally, maybe an hour after the first brief outage, the power went out. This time, it didn’t come back on seconds later.
I think that was around 2:30 p.m. We had a wind advisory until 6:00 p.m. The remnants of Hurricane Ike had reached us, so we were getting pretty heavy winds. I don’t think I’ve seen them this bad.
Shame on me for not having my battery backup unit fully charged. I did later run a TV off it, which was enough to find out the weather forecast. Fortunately, there was no rain in the forecast. Well, some minor sprinkling, but nothing major.
And, that’s a good thing because there is a lot of damage caused by the winds. I’ve lived here for over 25 years, and I don’t think I’ve seen this much damage from wind. The furnace cap thing blew off. Fortunately, our neighbor brought it over. But, he lost the cap on his roof fan, and that’s apparently no where to be found. The cover on the grill blew off, but we put it back on. The wind was so strong it actually moved the grill. Then, shortly thereafter, the wind had taken the cover again, and it was no where to be found. I even looked up in the trees, but saw no sign of it. The wind moved the grill again. This time, I locked the wheels and there was no more of that.
With no power, there wasn’t much to do. We picked up walnuts from the front yard, which was somewhat stupid since the wind was blowing and there were a couple near misses (i.e., walnuts nearly hitting you in the head). But, you do stuff like that when you’re bored. The neighbor likes them, so we gave them all to him. He helped pick some up too, until he got to the point he felt it was too dangerous.
Anyway, about half an hour later, you would never know we picked up any walnuts, because they were all over the ground again.
In addition to the furnace cap thing, some shingles were twisted up, some blew off entirely. One part of the gutter guard came flying out. So, there’s some damage, and some repair to be done. It’s a good thing we’re not expecting rain for several days!
After the winds had passed through, which was after 6:00 p.m., people were already on their roofs pounding shingles back into place. Even during the winds, there were people out cutting up trees that had fallen. The top of a pine tree broke off and fell into the neighbor’s yard. It was another neighbors tree.
While listening to the radio, while the power was out, it was reported that there were about 650,000 homes without power. And, they had the encouraging news that it might take days before everyone had power restored. Later, after the winds had dissipated, it was reported that 690,000 homes were without power.
We got power back on maybe around 7:00 p.m. We didn’t get cable and Internet back on until after 9:00 p.m. We’re lucky. A few streets away, people were still without power. It was reported on the news that there are about 650,000 homes still without power. There are school closings too. There was a big fire downtown. It started in one building and winds spread it to adjoining buildings, even ones across the street. Lots of people have roof damage, caused not only by winds but also fallen trees. And, probably flying debris too. When I was outside, I got struck by a branch. It felt like a big one, but it was a tiny little thing. But, the force of the wind made the impact more powerful than it would had the branch just fallen on you.
Of course, there were lots of downed power lines too. In some of the newer neighborhoods, the power lines are buried underground. But, in most of the area, they are still run above. A nearby neighborhood was without power, even though its lines run underground, but they probably connect to the older lines, which run above ground. We saw where a line was down and the road closed. Saw two road closings, but only saw the downed power line on one.
I don’t think there are many dead leaves left on the trees anymore. It was reported on the news that there were winds of up to 80 mph. When I watched it, it seemed to blow in different directions too.
Lots of porch furniture thrown about too. Well, if the winds can move a grill, you can imagine what they could do to a lawn chair. Signs are knocked over. I guess that’s one way to clear the neighborhood of those political signs. Saw a broken mailbox that I’m sure the wind caused, because of the way it was broken.
We’re fortunate to have power and Internet now, while so many are still without. Of course, the damage to our area is probably next to nothing compared with those that took the brunt of Ike while it was still a hurricane.
A lot of traffic lights are still out, or twisted, or gone. In the photo below, on the left side, you can see where two wires hang down where there should be two traffic lights. If you look on the right side, you’ll see two traffic lights, except one is missing the bottom two lights.
They’re still not expected to have power restored to every one for a few days. They are even bringing in crews from out of state to help. So, we’re lucky. It will be interesting to see how tomorrow goes, and how many places and businesses will still be without power tomorrow.
I’m trying to catch up on my computer work for the day, but most of the day is going to be a wash as far as that is concerned. I did do some work earlier, but you never realize how much you need the Internet until you don’t have access to it! You need to look something up and, oops!, no can do!
But, I do have my little battery backup unit charging…
As far as we know to this point, this one missed our home in Arkansas. We’ll get more info tomorrow.
Strange year, this one.
I’m glad we didn’t consider trying to get that job in Bay City, Texas, and didn’t even think about moving back to the Houston area. The area I lived in back in the late 60s was almost certainly flooded.
Take care of yourself and your family, Dan!
I used to live in Bay City. Not Texas though.
I hope your house is okay!
Glad you are OK …. power and trees?? They can be fixed / replanted
Thanks. I’m lucky to have power. According to the energy company’s website, it looks like 83% of the people who lost power are still out.
WOW! I am glad that there is no rain. It will make it worst. I am also glad that you are OK.
haha .. We also got some storm here in AZ, but it is no way to compare with yours!
Thanks. Still no rain in the forecast for the next few days, so hopefully that will give everyone a chance to get their roofs fixed.
Oh, wow! Now I feel bad for picking on you on Twitter. Not bad enough to keep me from coming over HERE and picking on you though.
Seriously, stay safe. I’m glad you are okay. Speedcat has the priorities right.
You were picking on me on Twitter? I haven’t checked Twitter yet…
I’m not sure if you realize how strange it is for me (in Florida) to be reading about you (in Ohio - it is Ohio, right?) having to deal with remnants of a hurricane. Glad to hear everything is OK. Hang in there.
Yes, it is Ohio. It’s strange writing about it too! I mean, we frequently get the remnants of a hurricane, but by the time they reach us, they’re just thunderstorms not much different from any other thunderstorm. I don’t remember if the last bad thunderstorm we had was the remnant of a hurricane or not. I think it was just the leftovers of a severe thunderstorm farther out west and not hurricane related.
But, even with those severe thunderstorms, I don’t think I’ve seen winds like this before. Some of the wind speeds and damage are comparable to a tornado. An F-0 tornado reaches speeds of 18-32 mph, and can cause broken branches, chimney damage and signs blown about, all of which we had. An F-1 tornado reaches speeds of 33-50 mph, and can cause snapped trees, roof surfaces blown off and broken windows. We had snapped trees and shingles torn off roofs, but I’m not sure if we had any broken windows. I didn’t see any, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t any. An F-2 tornado has wind speeds of 51-70 mph and can cause large trees to be uprooted, roofs torn off houses and mobile homes destroyed. We had large trees uprooted, mostly pines which have a lot of wind resistance. I don’t think any roofs were torn off houses, and I don’t know of any mobile homes being destroyed, though there were cars and trucks destroyed by falling signs, so there could be mobile home damage too. But, I’d bet most of that was caused by other things, such as falling signs or trees, and not directly by the wind.
So, it’s weird to have this strong of an effect from a hurricane, especially being so far inland. One weatherman said it had to do with a cold front entering the area at the same time the remnants of Hurricane Ike came in, which combined to make such a fierce windstorm.
Of course, the difference between this and a tornado is that you wouldn’t stand outside and watch a tornado, probably. But, we were outside during some of these winds. It was strong, but, you know, it didn’t feel quite strong enough to do all the damage that it did. I guess we’re just lucky we didn’t get hit by any debris flying through the air, though there were some close calls with the walnuts!
The remnants of Ike continued all the way up to New York. If you drop by Awake in Rochester, you can see the damage they had there. They didn’t have the wind speeds we had, but, like us, they don’t normally have windstorms like this either!
A few years ago, we had one blow through that left us without power for 10 days. Standing outside was fun as it came inland, but it got a little scary when the trees started falling over. I’ll stop over at Awake in Rochester and see the damage assessment, thanks.
We had a huge storm this summer that torn down large old trees, it took 3 weeks for cleanup…It was uber freaky my husband came running in at 3pm and said it’s pitch black dark as night out there. I went upstairs and never saw a storm that dark. Trees with root balls bigger then a Volkswagen bug were overturned taking up whole parcels of sidewalk. I can imagine the wind was terrible. My neighbor thought she was going to lose her house, the tree in her yard starting bending down and it’s a 100 year old huge oak.
I am glad you’re okay