Hurricane Ike Windy Day 2008

Okay, more about our Hurricane Ike winds a few weeks ago. In Kentucky on a Sunday, we had MAJOR winds from Hurricane Ike that almost disabled the whole city of Louisville, surrounding areas and parts of Indiana. Mark went to the hospital to sit with his sister, as Shayla and I watched many (I'm mean MANY) Bradford Pear trees fall in our neighborhood. We live in a deed restricted area (only meaning with have a neighborhood association) and EVERY house has a matching Bradford pear tree in it's front yard (along with matching mailbox...unless you're a rebel, like our neighbor Mike). These trees are absolutely beautiful every spring as they bloom with their lovely white flowers, however, they don't do well in high winds. We lost about a third of ours earlier this year when we had some high winds...before that, it had been perfectly shaped. That Sunday morning, just before Mark left for the hospital, he cut our grass and watched as another large chunk fell from our once pretty tree. Before you knew it, the tree at our neighbors (3 young girls) across the street, fell right behind their Jeep and crushed the mailbox. Neighbors kept knocking on their door so the owner could move it in case the rest of the tree came down, but supposedly the girl that was at home was asleep, as she is a nurse who was on the night shift and didn't hear the knocking, the door, nor the many chainsaws being used that day. Finally our good Samaritan neighbors broke into her Jeep and pushed it out of the way...just in time. About a half hour later, the largest part of the tree fell exactly where her Jeep had been parked! Good thing they moved it! All day we heard cracking sounds and turned to see large pieces of trees falling...every time one of us in the neighborhood saw one go, we promptly reported it to our good Samaritan neighbors who immediately helped the owner cut it into pieces and get hauled off (Norm, our carpet laying and radar gun wielding neighbor) dragged them to a vacant spot in the neighborhood for our council member to arrange disposal of. Shayla and I sat on our porch and watched all the excitement in the neighborhood, it was already hot in the house, so we hung out outside most of the day, then when Mark got home, we all (along with many neighbors) walked around looking at our wind-altered neighborhood...in the dark. We later drove around the city...it was creepy...street lights were out, stop lights were out, there were no lights in any businesses or homes...it was really freaky. I've never seen anything like it in my life. I have to admit, I felt helpless and panicked...everything was just so dark and unfamiliar. Over the 48+ hours without electricity, we unfortunately lost EVERYTHING in our refrigerator/freezer...it was still less than our $500.00 deductible, so we can't report it to our homeowners insurance. We dealt with life in the dark with candles, baths in the dark, and peanut butter sandwiches and chips. Luckily it came back on a couple of days later...yay! Here are some pictures from all of the excitement.