If there's one thing we're used to, it's a good storm. And with all of the huge snow storms we've had all winter, this was no surprise. They'd been talking about it for nearly a week, saying that the National Weather Service was slating us for some pretty nasty, severe storms. The last time they mentioned the NWS, it was last month when we got that big ice storm, so I knew this was no ordinary storm.
Around midnight, I hear Christopher and Preston coming downstairs (I'd fallen asleep on the couch) and I noticed he had a flashlight. The power had gone out. We debated whether we needed to start the generator as it started pouring, and decided we'd better. I sent Preston upstairs with Kate while I helped Christopher get everything set up. As soon as I plugged the sump pump in, it started hailing... HARD. Christopher had to run back around to the front of the house being pelted by hail. By this time, everything was rumbling, and I had both kids down in the basement while Christopher stood watch at the front door. I was scared. Really scared. Two summers ago, a tornado went directly over our house and took the tops of our trees with it, and yet, I had never heard a rumbling like I heard last night. Within 5 minutes, it had settled down enough that Christopher came down and I felt a little better. Soon after, we decided to head up to bed.
Since Preston is terrified of storms and power outages, I went and laid in his bed with him. He would not go back to sleep. I felt bad for Kate, so I decided he and I would go sleep in her big bed. Well, with her room on the north side of the house, it was much noisier, and Preston refused to be in there. I told Kate she could come in his room and I'd make her a bed on the floor. That worked for a while before she decided to go back to her own bed once everything was quiet. I got down and slept on Preston's floor at this point because he was sound asleep, yet I knew if I left the room and he woke up in the dark, he'd flip out (and he did when he didn't find me in his bed). It was well past 3:00 when I got to sleep and didn't sleep well on the hard floor.
I heard Christopher around 6:00 and the power was still out. I got up and tried to figure out what to do. I had no idea if there was power in town or whether or not they'd have school. I had no idea what I was going to do about breakfast, either! Then at 6:20, the power came on! God was with us! The rest of the morning was uneventful and we were SO glad to have electricity! With the power out for nearly 7 hours, a lot of the food in the refrigerator had to be thrown out. I took one whif of my OJ and nearly fell over. It went bad that fast! Luckily, the freezer was full and everything was still very frozen.
We escaped without much damage. The fascia blew off the north side of the house and curled up over the roof, but it is now nailed back down. I have no idea if there is any damage from the hail or not. I never got a clear answer on how big it was. And no major tree damage either!
So it's safe to say that we were all dragging today after being up so much during the night. Preston fell asleep within minutes of lying down tonight and I intend to follow suit very shortly! With the crazy winter we had, I can already foresee an eventful spring!
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