The not-so-perfect Storm

I guess it was inevitable; extreme heat for a few days will spawn a thunderstorm. We had one last night. It started at about 8:30 PM and it was an extreme storm. High winds and plenty of rain. It came down in buckets. We watched it from our sun-room and it was scary—like a tropical storm. To top it off the power went out shortly before 9:00 PM and didn’t come back until 3:30 AM. Apparently, 35 000 Hydro customers lost power. This morning about 17 000 still had no power.

Electric power for us is important and not just for the lights. The Air Conditioner doesn’t work; the fridge and freezer don’t work. And in this heat it is crucial to have them working. In addition for us we have no water, because we have a well, which means we can’t use the toilet. We also have to worry about our sump pit filling up and running over. For that I actually do have a generator which would power the pump. Unfortunately, the well pump is 240 Volts. Our generator produces only 115 Volts.

This morning we surveyed the damage the storm left behind and it wasn’t a pretty sight. One of our lilac bushes had broken off and the worst was the Mountain Ash Tree, our pride and joy. The storm had broken it and that tree can’t be replaced. It had already so many beautiful berries. The birds love them, especially the Robins. Also, much of our yard was covered with broken off willow branches. The place looked like a war zone. Now we have all this work to clean up. I already loaded up one truck with branches to take to the dump. Another disappointment: All our apples are on the ground. No apples this year. And I was looking forward to getting some. We only have two Goodland trees and one old Battleford tree, which also got split in half by the last storm we had.

The vegetables in our garden have been flattened, but they are resilient and are already lifting up. Today is another hot and muggy day.

Just one corner of our yard. Branches everywhere.