Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Spokane Storms

Ok, I've got like 7 posts to do, but I'm going to start small with this one.

For some reason, the storms in Spokane have been crazy this summer. Okay, two have them have been crazy - but I mean really crazy!

On July 23rd, we got hit hard with our first one. Rich and I had just taken Norah for a swim in our pool that afternoon but decided to head in when we saw some big clouds rolling in. Those big clouds came fast! Within half an hour, the rain was flying sideways past our windows and the street was practically overflowing. And the wind was nuts! We saw the trees outside bending like crazy, but they seemed strong enough. Our power flickered a couple times, but stayed on (which was lucky because I was making my first batch of homemade ice cream).

Before the storm ended, our next-door neighbor Bernard knocked on our door with some bad news.

He told us a tree had fallen on our car.

I wish I would have gotten a picture of the view from our window because all I could see was a huge tree where our car had been.

Rich immediately went out - in the storm - to check on the car. I stayed inside with Norah and actually stayed really calm. Even though we were supposed to leave for Utah in two days (more on that later) and potentially had no car.

Rich came in to report the damage and told me it wasn't as bad as it looked, though still no fun to deal with. Once the storm was over - it really only lasted about 20 minutes - I headed out to see for myself and snap some pictures.

Imagine you're looking at this head on, when all you can see is tree. That was the view from my window. Also, can you see the tree on the left is completely broken in half? There was another tree by our building that snapped in half like this, although the top part never completely broke off (and it's still standing, roped off, since our apartment complex is yet to do anything about it.) This happened to trees all over Spokane. The wind was so crazy! There were so many fallen trees on houses and garages and in the road.So much cleanup, and it's still going on in some places.

The tree actually landed on our carport, which then broke, and you can see the beam that went through our rear window. It could have been A LOT worse, and it was for plenty of people in Spokane. Our Facebook feeds exploded with pictures of damage from our Spokane friends. Almost everyone got hit, it seemed. Edie came over for dinner (Doug was on the youth trek) because her neighborhood lost power for the rest of the night. A lot of places were without power for quite a while.


The rear window was by far the worst damage, and that was luckily an easy fix. We brought it in on the following Friday and replaced the window in two hours. We were able to leave for our Utah trip as planned that afternoon.

We thought maybe they'd have fixed the carport by the time we got back from Utah, but this is what we came home to. And it's still like that, too. Over a month later. They really know how to move quickly here.

After we got back from Utah, the real fun of repairing the car began. It took two weeks to get these little dents (and a couple more on the hood) repaired. Being down a car for two weeks is never easy, but I can't even begin to describe how much fun it was with that being our only car. Ugh. Thankfully, Doug and  Edie let us use Doug's truck. For two weeks.

But that wasn't the only storm. The next one came Saturday, August 2nd. We were at Doug and Edie's since the Petersens were in town (more on this later, too). We were trying to figure out what to do for dinner and had decided on Papa Murphy's. A couple people left to get the pizzas, and a storm came with a vengeance. Again.

It was the same deal as the other one. Crazy fast wind. Pouring rain. Water practically flooding the street. And the power went out. I texted the pizza crew to say that it was no use getting a pizza since we had no way to cook it. Since they were out, they checked on our apartment, which did lose power this time, and Doug's Subway store. It, too, had lost power, and that's never a good thing for a business that depends heavily on refrigerators and freezers.

It actually ended up being kind of a fun night. We feasted on hot dogs cooked on the grill and told ghost stories by flashlight (some were scarier than others - you should ask Camryn to tell hers sometime). Rich and I went back to our apartment to sleep that night and woke up to still no power (ours probably came on around noon). Doug and Edie's came on around 5:30 a.m., so we hung out there for the day. (And Subway got power early enough that there was no harm done.)

Luckily, there was no damage for us but plenty more around town. So many trees down yet again!

I should have gotten more pictures to fully capture the carnage, but this one can give you a taste. See how this tree was ripped up by its roots? CRAZY! And there were plenty of others just like it!

Now, any time a storm is coming, I start getting a little paranoid that it's going to be another big one.

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