The Storm Before the Calm

This summer has been extraordinarily hot and humid and yesterday was no exception.  Due to the weather conditions the local meteorologists had predicted thunderstorms.  We didn't pay much attention to that as we had gotten used to these summer afternoon forecasts which typically produced nothing.  I did hope for some rain so that I wouldn't have to water our flowers, but other than that I really didn't pay much attention to the forecast.  

Even with the hot weather yesterday afternoon Meg and I were still able to take a walk and Cal and I were able to enjoy lunch outside as well.  Doug called at 5:30 so I headed out to the front porch to talk with him.  Meg joined me a little later as she was waiting for Nick to return from Purdue.  It was still a little hot out, but nothing that we weren't used to this summer.  All of a sudden the emergency service alarm blarred on both of our phones with a tornado warning.  I knew that there had been storms in Illinois earlier in the day from Doug's cousin's FaceBook post, so we headed straight to the basement.  I was a little worried as Doug wasn't home with Cam yet.  Nick wasn't here either, so Meg checked on Find My Phone and both cars were in Syracuse.  Thankfully, they all made it down stairs shortly just before the storm hit.

I turned on television when we first went downstairs so that we could watch our local weatherman.  Within minutes the power flickered and the internet went out.  None of our phones could pick up data either.  Thus, for about forty-five minutes we weren't sure what was going on outside.  Around 7:15 Doug went upstairs and saw that it was still storming.  Nick texted his brother in Detroit who had power and internet and could tell us that the storm was subsiding and would be thru our area soon.  I checked in with Cal.  He was safe and sound at Hannah-Marie's home.  They had been kayaking, but made it inside well ahead of the storm.  My parents were fine also, but they did not have electricity.  

Today the true nature of the storm presented itself.  Although there was no official word on whether a tornado touched down or not, there was a path of destruction.  It started at our neighbor's two streets over where their fence was blown down.  Directly east of that several trees were down in the Wawasee Heights area.  The majority of the damage occured, however, about a mile away from there along a direct path straight to Hunnicut addition near Oakwood and close to my parents' home on Harkless Drive.  There were multiple large trees uprooted, power lines down, several cars destroyed and damage to homes.  It was scary to look at even the day afterward.  NIPSCO crews worked on the area for most of the late afternoon and early evening today.  My parents finally had power about twenty-four hours after the storm hit.  Thankfully, our internet was restored earlier than that.  As inconvenient as it was to be without power or internet, all of us felt incredibly blessed that everyone was safe and the only damage any of us had was a large branch that came off one of our trees.