Ten days ago my community was slammed by an 86 mph straight line wind.
The town of 40,000 and the wider county of 60,000 saw thousands of trees felled, glass shattered and power lines dropped into streets and wrapped around trees.
Many streets were impassable. Signal lights at major intersections did not function. A chemical leak caused the lockdown of a neighboring town.
My roof took a tree limb, a sycamore that left a small puncture.
An enterprising young man in the right place at the right time with a chainsaw and a trailer got the limb cut and off the root. Most importantly the limb no longer formed a bridge between my roof and a power line that was going to fire up at any time as the power company raced to get the grid up and running for 18,000 households.
more importantly, many community members grabbed saws and gloves and trailers and helped their neighbors take down damaged trees and hawl off debris. A week later, huge uprooted trees are still evident around town, but most of those giant oaks and maples were cut, neatly stacked, and waiting to be hauled off or taken for firewood.
For now our drought has eased a little. But the heat has already cranked up, threatening to bake the moisture out of the soil. Wheat harvest has been set back a couple of weeks. Cleanup continues and we turnour eyes to our full summer of festivals, street parties, parades, comic cons and concerts. The summer officially ends after the State fair, a 10-day event that brings in some 400,000 visitors.
Trees grow back. Life goes on.
Howling Yeti 