Here is a post that I just posted on the Cochran blog and thought you guys would be interested in reading it as well. Hope all is well!
It all started around 3am last night when I noticed some lightning outside that was flashing in a way I've never seen before, so I went outside to watch it cuz it was cool (yeah, I'm pretty smart!). Anyway, it was crazy, whenever the lightning would flash, the area in the sky around it would turn a NEON BLUE! It was weird! It was a little off in the distance (maybe around a couple miles away) and the weather wasn't bad at all at our house at that time. Anyway, so the color of the blue was SO amazing that I went to wake Dale up so he could see it. Just in the time it took me to go get Dale and have him look out the window, the weather had changed drastically (it was like it went from 5 to 100 just in that short time!) and the storm was over our house, lightning in every direction going like every half second and inbetween those seconds, there was more lightning flashing in other directions... it was seriously crazy! Then the wind picked up and our electricity went out. We heard tornado alarms going off in the distance and so we went to gather the kids and Chudleigh, ready to head for our little safety spot in the house and just sat there, in the dark, lightning flashing like crazy, wind blowing waaaay out of control and just sat there waiting for the neighborhood tornado alarm to go off. Anyway, after about 20 minutes, the storm passed and headed towards Plano (where Uncle Rick is). Everything was fine, thank goodness.
Ok, so fast forward to tonight....
As I was driving to Woga Gym in Plano, I noticed that there were HUGE oak trees split in half and down along the street and uprooted, power lines down everywhere, roofs messed over. As I got closer to Woga (and to Uncle Rick's house - he's a block away from Woga), the damage got worse and worse. It was CRAZY!!!! Once I finally got to Woga, it was chaos just trying to get into the parking lot because everything was taped off and the entire intersection was blocked with emergency trucks everywhere because of more huge trees and power lines being down... not just the power lines but even the big wooden poles that hold the lines were down!
Anyway, so when I finally made it into the Woga parking lot, I noticed that the building was damaged big time and it was all taped off... and yet, there was still class going on! We had to actually walk underneath the tape to get to the doorway and yet, class was STILL going on! That's Texas for ya!
Oh and on a side note... I did pass by Uncle Rick's house on the way home to make sure his house was ok and it's fine. There's trees throughout his neighborhood that are down and the entire neighborhood smells heavily like sap, but luckily Uncle Ricks house is fine and the humongous oak tree in his yard is unharmed. I did notice, however, that one of his shingles is hanging off practically, but that's nothin thank goodness!!!! Anyway, thought I'd share! Welcome to Texas, Kate & Justin!! Hope you're ready for this! :)
9 comments:
Wow, I'm not used to tornados. This part of CO rarely sees them. I hope McKinney is the same way!
WOW!!! That is out of control. Glad to here everyone is OK.
You know, there were fences blown down in our neighborhood too and I saw a chimney blown over in Plano as well. I heard that weather that severe is pretty rare around here though. Fingers crossed.
Uh, I'm second guessing this whole "move to Texas after graduation plan"...no so appealing anymore.
Courtney...you are absolutely forbidden to move to Texas. End of story.
I think I better clarify something... we don't know for sure that it was tornados and currently the weather experts are saying strong winds and nothing else. Anyway, people in Plano who's homes were damaged, etc... and also people in our ward, are certain it was small tornados that came through. I agree, how else could a huge tree thats been here for fifty plus years be uprooted??? Anyway, I don't want to scare you guys... it could've been a lot worse and it's also very rare for this to happen here in the suburbs.
Yeah, I agree with Steph's clarification. The news reports I heard indicate only that there were strong winds. The only place I heard of a tornado was an F-1 (the lowest) and it was in a place called De Soto, quite a ways from here. I'll agree, there was some tree damage, but, based on the looks of the trees, years of bad pruning or a fork too low down the trunk would seem to be possible culprits to me. When you have heavy branches weighing down, coupled with even moderate wind, that would put quite a strain on the lower part of the tree. I saw a number of trees with branches that fell, but I must have missed the uprooting. Rumor has it that Adam was laying in bed listening to the noise and said he'd definitely heard worse. So, for us Californians, the wind seemed strong. But, I think it was probably comparatively mind for some of the midwesterners.
I disagree with Dale... just wanted to make that clear! That was a crazy storm and people around town are still talking about it. It wasn't some ordinary storm we usually get around here. Dale, whatever happened to supporting your wife even if it means going down the dark side? hehe :)
Okay, I stand corrected. At church yesterday, I heard that a few sections of a fence got blown down and some shingles blew off a roof and I saw some tarps on other roofs. The bishop said it was the worst he had seen in 18 years here. So, it looks like we were fortunate. And, on the way home, I saw some cranes holding up some power lines from a tower that got blown over.
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