Another Day of Wild Weather
Whoa! The last few days have been insane here in Connecticut. I really planned on getting a new post up Tuesday evening, but around 5 PM the weather changed everything.
Tuesday was such a pretty day here. Sunshine and nice Spring temperatures. I was chatting with the neighbors a bit after the bus dropped off Gabriella. The wind started to pick up a bit but nothing strange.
We headed inside and got settled. T.J. was in New York at work. I usually let the kids hang out after school and do whatever. Valentina and Anthony were playing and Gabriella wanted to have some quiet time with a new book she grabbed out of the library.
I changed my clothes into something more casual and comfortable. Then I took the trash cans out to the curb. I felt a few drops of rain while I was outside, but it was still super sunny and warm. I started to get organized in the kitchen and get ready to start dinner. I was doing dinner and bedtime and bath time solo so I had to prioritize.
I went to the bathroom quick and by the time I made it back downstairs to the kitchen the sky went pitch black, the wind was howling and the rain was pouring down like nothing I’ve ever seen.
I started closing all the windows. It wasn’t easy. A lot of our windows in the living room and dining room crank out and in and with the wind fighting against me I was worried I’d even get them closed. The rain was coming down so hard and fast I couldn’t even see across the street.
Then the power went out, but it came back on. Then it was on and off and on and off and surging until it finally went off.
The kids were running for the drawer that we keep the flashlights. They were pretty freaked out. It was thundering and lightening. Then my phone started beeping with a weather alert that we had a tornado warning. Guys, we do not live in a place that normally gets tornados or tornado warning. I was now PANICKED. There were 4 tornados confirmed hitting Connecticut and
No sooner that alert went on my phone I heard a banging sound outside. HAIL! Hail the size of ping pong balls were flying down from the sky. I took the kids and headed downstairs.
I’ve never seen weather like this happen before. It was all going down so fast. It was so dark. I had my car keys in my hand and was ready to bolt with the kids if need be.
Once it finally settled down outside a bit we came back upstairs. It was a mess outside. Branches and leaves and everything else was all over the yard. My neighbor had messaged me to say that there was a giant tree down across our road tangled up with power lines. No doubt that was why we didn’t have power anymore. The power lines that had been torn down with the tree and ripped out of another neighbors home caused a small house fire. Since we live in a cup-de-sac there was no way out of our neighborhood until the tree was cleared away. The power company and police closed the road off with caution tape and left it.
I am thankful that our neighborhood backs up to another development that has a small access road. This road is usually gated off and locked up with chains all the time. In the five years I’ve lived here, I’ve never seen it open to cars. You can only walk through. Well, trucks had needed access on Monday to deliver mulch to that development and the gate was left open! I had messaged my Dad who lives in that development to try and make his way over because I needed help getting the generator going. He was able to get through!
I was texting with T.J. while this was all going down. I told him it wasn’t worth trying to drive home yet. Once he started him he was texting me how bad the traffic was. There were lots of trees down and it was still raining quite a bit. He managed to get home around 8:30PM.
We had cold cereal for dinner. I wasn’t about to start cooking dinner after everything settled back down. The kids were pretty startled so they went to bed much later than their typical bedtime. I let them have some iPad time to get their minds off of feeling worried.
The sunset that night was so strange. When the darkness finally moved on, it got really bright outside even though it should have been dark.
I was so thankful to have not seen a tornado. I was thankful that we were safe and our house wasn’t damaged. If the power going out was our only loss, that was something I could gladly deal with.
I didn’t sleep much that night. I kept checking on the kids and the sound of generators running was all you could hear. When we woke up there was no change with the power. We made coffee, served the kids breakfast and T.J. went out in search of wifi and a place to work. Luckily the library had opened up. Schools were closed.
Even today, almost two days later there are still several areas without power. My daughter’s elementary school didn’t get power restored until very late last night so school today was still questionable when we went to bed. There is tons and tons of trees down and lots of cleanup again.
I was so glad to hear the hum of all the things come back on yesterday when the power was finally restored! Thankful for all the utility workers working around the clock to make the lights come on!
Some neighboring towns actually did have tornados touch down! I am still in such disbelief how much damaged happened in about 20 minutes time.
