Nasty Ugly Storm

June 29th was a hot and muggy day so Sensible Me slept during the heat of the day with the intention of staying up very late and working on the Guest-Room-To-be.  I’d gotten up around 5pm, gone grocery shopping, mowed the yard and just finished a most pleasant fried fish dinner when the wind started to kick up a bit.  Then it kicked up a great bit more.  Paws-in-Trouble, my black cat who only comes in the house when its cold or the weather is otherwise truly abysmal, came running up to the kitchen door and DEMANDED to be let in as the wind got really really serious.  I could hear trees cracking and breaking but as it was full dark I couldn’t see much.  The power flickered off, then on, then off again and stayed off.  Other than the lighting and weird reddish flashing off to the north (the power substation took a direct hit) there was no sign of power on anywhere.  Not much rain, just an very scary cosmic light show and near hurricane winds. 

My phone jingled just as the weather was moving off – my Urchin’s new-to-her house, the one she’d been in for barely 2 months had taken a tree to the roof.  A big tree to the roof, with water poring down the kitchen ceiling, the the back kitchen wall and into down the basement.  She still had power, it was storming outside to beat the band at her place and I’m on my laptop at my place in the dark trying to find her home owner’s insurance 800 claim number via my laptop.  If it hadn’t been so serious it would have been funny.

Urchin’s Battered House

My house came through it all with nothing more than leaf debris in the yard and no power.  Urchin’s place had a tree trunk on her roof, major holes in the roof, damage to the roof ridge and some rafters, a broken window, a shorted out kitchen light fixture, cracks in the kitchen ceiling drywall sheets, water damage to the ceiling and 2 walls, a hole in the side of the house just under roof’s ridgeline, a damaged rear gutter and a very big puddle of water in the basement.   Plus some stray pieces of tree in the yard and one the rear deck.  The car was fine, she was fine, the pets were freaked out but fine and she had power.

Urchin’s boyfriend JR came out, moved the tree parts off the roof and put plastic tarps over the damage.  JR is a most wonderful boyfriend.  The insurance company called Monday, the adjuster was there Wednesday and I’m impressed.  The Urchin did decide to cancel her house warming party on the 4th, she felt she had enough on her plate with the house damage.  And she needed to find a contractor to fix things.

Smashed the Roof but Missed the Power Line

Meanwhile back at my place I was straightening up my kitchen and getting ready to drive down to Lynchburg.  My friend Gypsy Jane had a tree hit her RV so I was going to help her out.  Fortunately she didn’t end up needing much help.  I picked up a box in my kitchen, the bottom started to give way, I pushed the bottom back in place and thereby pushed a #2 treble fish hook all the way past the barb into my finger.  So I sat down, realized this was not something I could remove on my own, carefully unscrewed the hook from its lure and drove to the UVA hospital ER. 

US 29 south was a mess – trees and tree debris everywhere.  There were power crews working on down power lines and DOT crews removing roadway obstructions.  And there was no power, 3/4 of C’ville was sans electricity.  Fortunately UVA hospital has its own generators.  Several of them actually.  It took 2 hours, 3 shots of Novocain, 2 doctors, 1 intern and a tetanus shot but my right index finger was finally treble hook free.  I don’t want to think yet about what this will cost me.

My next task was to find some gas – I only has 3 or 4 gallons in my tank at this point.  Remember the no power in 3/4 of C’ville?  Well there was also no interwebs or land line phones in any of C’ville.  So gas stations with power still couldn’t pump gas if their pumps were net run and they couldn’t process ATM cards.  I finally found a good ol boy Exxon station with power, non-digital pumps and a manual credit/check card machine.  Thank You Jesus for low tech.

Tank filled, car charger for my cell phone acquired, I headed down to Gypsy Jane’s rig.  The campground had lost its main power line to a tree but the wadding in the water was wonderfully cooling and there was a delightful breeze all day.  The damage to her rig wasn’t too bad either.   I drove home that evening much refreshed although I still had no power at my house.  And the just bought frozen fish and chicken were toast. 

Sunday I headed to the Urchin’s place with my chainsaw.  She had power.  She had AC.  She had cold fluids.  I hadn’t slept well, what with the heat, no electricity and my very sore finger.  So I hydrated up at Da Urchin’s, napped for a few hours in her AC and then earned my keep by cutting up about half of tree trunk pieces.  I pulled in my driveway around 11:30pm to the welcome glow of my porch light.  Things are definitely looking up.