The remnants of Hurricane Ike reached Ohio yesterday. I’ve never seen crazy wind like this!
Our yard is wooded, so we spent the day watching the trees bending over backwards. We lost two of them, but neither hit the house, thank goodness. There were branches and leaves and debris flying into the windows for hours. It was pretty nerve-wracking.
We lost power almost immediately. They said something like 600,000 homes have been out of power in the Cincinnati area since the storm hit.
Have you ever noticed how long the days seem without power? There aren’t as many distractions. I couldn’t work on my blog posts for the week, for example, which is why I have no new posts for you today (unless you think this counts).
I read an entire novel from beginning to end by the light of a lantern yesterday. I haven’t had that much time to read in years! (It was a pretty good novel, too–Odd Mom Out by Jane Porter. Anyone read it?)
We just got our power back this morning, and we’re surveying the damage. Some houses lost shingles and siding, but most of our neighbors’ homes are miraculously intact. A few trees are down and lots of branches in yards, though, so we’ve got a bit of a cleanup job ahead of us today. The schools have all been canceled, so I’ll put my kids to work.
I can’t imagine what it must’ve been like for everyone in Texas living through the actual hurricane. Our experience was so minor compared to theirs. Hang in there, Texans!
Has anyone else been hit by Ike’s winds? Hope you’re all safe. Our in-laws in Northern Indiana got 8″ of rain over the weekend along with the wind. They said parts of Chicago are under water.
Now excuse me while I pull on some work gloves and get to work in the yard.
Anyone got a chainsaw? Feel free to stop by and lend a hand!
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OUCH!!!
Hate hurrricane clean up…once we were hit smack on, and had a bunch of beautiful Live Oaks…the yard was smothered with down branches and trees…we all went out with gloves on, and were cleaning up, when the winds started to kick up again and howl…we scrambled back in. We were new to FL…and didn’t realize we were out trying to clean up in the calm eye of the storm.
Glad you are ok! The fingers of a hurricane are Soooo far reaching. Think about how many countries and states have been affected! Oy.
We had wind and rain. Our, 5 year old, 30 year, Architectural shingled roof, sustained damage. Our builder guy is coming out this afternoon to access the damage. We think it’s an easy fix. Realized the leak when J walked through a puddle in the basement, yesterday morning. The leak is at the corner of the roof over the powder room on the main floor.
The Cuivre River is over the southbound lanes of the four lane highway (61) here in town. People driving down from eastern Iowa to St Louis will be familiar with this highway.
School is out in at least one area of our county, due to flooding. Two people lost their lives, because of Ike remnants, in STL. Another is missing. Our kids have water in their basement. Many homes were flooded on the west side of STL (Ladue and University City, that I know of). The Missouri and other rivers are out of their banks. We are to expect moderate to heavy flooding this week. The sky is still overcast, but the wind isn’t as strange as it was, over the weekend.
Ike was an amazingly powerful storm to affect so many people so many miles from where it came ashore. I cannot begin to imagine what it must be like in Texas!!
Oh, Julia! It’s amazing that Ike still had that intensity by the time he reached you. That’s so scary! I’m so glad everything is ok, and my prayers go out to everybody on the Gulf Coast, too.
oh my…I can’t imagine what that’s like. I’m grateful to live on the West Coast where we never experience storms like that. I’m glad your family and your home are okay. Sounds like you’ve got some work to do, though! Yikes.
That is really scary! I’m so glad you only lost two and that everyone is ok!
I am also amazed that so much damage was done so far inland! So glad you didn’t have damage to your home!
I do know what it is like to have that wind. Last January, No. California was hit by a very windy storm (80 mph gusts). We had no significant damage, only trees/branches down. But we were out of power for 3-1/2 days. It got so cold, we finally went to a motel on the thrid night. The dark at night seemed to be forever…
OH! I can’t believe it hit you that far up. I’m glad to hear the Hooked On clan is doing OK, though. I’ve been thinking about everyone that’s been hit so hard in Texas. Let’s just hope that we do a better job of taking care of storm victims than we have in the past. And I’ll leave it at that.
Good luck with clean up. I’m sorry we don’t live closer. We’re very handy with chainsaws. We’ve been known to make half dead trees “disappear” under the vale of darkness.
A couple years ago a micro-burst hit the town that I lived in at the time…I would say it was comparable to winds like a hurricane but didn’t last as long. Whole trees were uprooted and branches everywhere…power out and everything. I feel ya! I love the idea of reading all day – that sounds amazing.
Reagan, A microburst hit my yard once – I lost three trees – they looked like they had been blown up.
Weather is amazing, powerful, awesome and deadly. Glad you all are OK. I hate it when I get antsy when the power goes out — electricity is an addiction! LOL I get the shakes when it goes away lol Glad you found a lantern and a book – good for you!!
Kristin
We had lots of hurricane rain.
Wow, I’m glad your house survived! Erick and I rode out hurricane remnants in Virginia a few years ago, and we were surrounded by humongous trees…we prayed our way through that storm!
Totally get the no power thing. It’s such a blasted inconvenience, but makes me feel like such a wienie! So glad you were able to read through a novel-sounds like my idea of a great time.
It’s terrifically warm and windy up in Maine today. I’m wondering if we are feeling the effects of the last of Ike, or if it’s something else. But we sure haven’t had wind like this in a loooong time!
I think it’s so crazy that you got so much of it in Ohio. We had wind and rain and it took out almost all of my beautiful sunflowers. I won’t complain since we didn’t lose anything else or end up with a tree on our house but I’m a little bummed.
Wow! We are so close to the Texas coast, but didn’t get anything but a ton of rain. Recently, we had a tornado and more than 50 big trees behind our house snapped in two. One giant one fell down barely missing our house, but got the rest of the yard and fence. We had thousands of dollars worth of damage. I was freaking out that would happen with Ike. Sorry it missed us and moved your way… I bet it was scary with those hurricane winds. Glad everyone is okay.
It’s so amazing how far reaching those storms can be! We had some aftermath a few years ago from a Tropical storm that came through FL & were out of power for 3 days. I can’t even imagine going thru an actual hurricane. Glad you’re lit up again!
Oh my – I’m glad to hear you are safe. Weird when there aren’t distractions right? Glad to hear you got caught up on the little great things of life.
Wow! I can’t believe how strong that bad boy was by the time it reached your neck of the woods. Out here in the Northwest people might think that earthquakes would be something to be really worried about …but personally I think those crazy storms are far more frightening.
Sounds like you made that best of it…and I am going to check out that book you read. You know, it almost sounds like you are starting a HOH book club???? Just a thought. Glad to hear that you are all okay. Now rest.
Smiles ~ Ramona
We got the wind here in Lexington KY. We live in the hilly southern part so we weren’t as hard hit as the northern flatter part. Nothing really major down here, though, as far as I know.
Those tall skinny ones always give me the willies…I always feel like they’ll fall over or snap so easily. I’m so glad that was the worst of it. I was watching Matt Lauer dumbfounded this am. Thank you for the kind words regarding the Daddy Angel Garden.
I can understand because I live in Orlando. The 3 storms that hit us 3-4 years ago sucked. Charlie caused lots of damage and though I was only without power for 36 hours, many people lost it for weeks.
They are scary!
Yep, I keep thinking how blessed we are compaired to all the destruction in TX. I feel for them. I have a similar blog today. I actually posted twice today?? We were home all day too.
hello Julia – very glad to know you are all safe and sound … we don’t do hurricanes down here – we do cyclones – not nice – the last one I did I was in the bay on a biggesh boat – not a great place to be … I was trying to get home from working on an island … but instead spent eight hours going back and forth in a supposedly shealtered bit of water …
On another matter … do you have Grand Designs on TV – it is brittish – maybe BBC … I would love you to disect that show.
Best wishes in sorting the yard and finding ‘normal’ again – cheers le
I can’t believe how many states have been affected! Poor Texas!!! I am in Ar and we had limbs down and power outage too. I pray we are through for this year!
Thank God you and your little family are okay. No I can’t imagine being in TX those poor people, you can bet I would have heeded the call to get out ~ I can’t believe some people stayed. Mother Nature sure can be powerful huh ???
All the best,
Kathy
I am so sorry, this is horrible. I wish it would end.
WOW, that was some storm you got. I’m glad you and your family are ok. I hate being with out power. Have you got a chainsaw, looks like alot of cleaning up to do. We just watched the news, those poor people in Galveston, it looks like a tornado went through.
Hey, Julia! Glad you’re OK.
We got killed down here in CVG.
DW took a ton of shots just within a couple blocks (a 5 block swath area, both sides and posted them on the blog.
I’d say that there was a 1:20 chance of having your car squashed in CVG on Sunday.
http://www.rehabordie.com/2008/09/windy-day-in-covington-little-too-windy.html
Mark
We are underwater in Chicago, but again, it is nothing compared to what Texas got, so I am saying my thank you’s! I am glad you’re okay!
Jen,
We didn’t get a drop of rain. If we’d gotten much, we’d have lost a ton more trees and that’s a whole lot. We got a ton of damage as it is. I heard you guys had lots of water but not much wind. I’ll split the burden with you guys any day.
M
No, we didn’t get any rain, either, Mark. It was all wind. Very bizarre. My in-laws said they had 12″ of rain by the end of the weekend. We were very glad we didn’t have that much rain with the power outage because our basement would’ve been under water! -Julia
Julia,
Get a small generator for your sump pump. It’s a cheap insurance policy. You can set it to automatically go on when the power goes off and when there’s water to move out of your basement.
M
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