The worst of the storm for the most part went around us. We had a tree hit by lightning 130 feet from the house. Bark was blown a good 90 feet from the tree. I was looking outside when the flash hit followed by the boom. Way to close.
The trunk was not split so maybe the tree will survive.
Scary thing was I would have been working under that tree if I was doing outdoor chores that day.
We had head no thunder and the storms were still 20-30 miles away.
Yesterday I went Down East to help clean up a trailer directly hit by a tornado. Supposedly there were four trailers hit but it was kinda hard to tell because only one was still "standing" while the others were spread over hundreds of yards and left in mounds.
The owner of the trailer we were cleaning up was killed. A trailer a few hundred yards across the street had two fatalities. A son and father. They were found with the son covering the father with his body. The father was dead at the scene and the son was pronounced dead at the hospital but it sounded like he bled out before getting to the ER.
The trailer I was cleaning up was on a block foundation held down by straps. The straps simply failed. Most of the anchors are still in the ground inside the foundation. The trailer lifted, I assume from the front facing the tornado, flipped over leaving a "trench" where the side or roof peak hit the ground and rolled at least once while rotating 90 degrees. The structure of the trailer, 2x6 walls, I beam support, etc seem to have held up very well. I was quite impressed with how well made the trailer was as well. as the quality of the materials.
One has to wonder if cables or thicker straps would have held down that trailer and prevented a death.
The other two trailers where just gone. A fourth trailer was still intact a hundred years or so behind the one I was working on. It had been rotated 90 degrees but it was still upright. If the tornado had passed a few hundred yards east or west it would have only taken out trees. This was a very rural area and the tornado managed to hit a cluster of homes.
There were quite a few people out helping to clean up and I heard a group of 30 people would be driving down from VA to help out. Even a green and orange tractor were working together.
A deputy was parked across the street 24 hours a day to prevent looting. :thumbsup:
On the way down I passed an area that was hard hit as well. The tornado managed to hit two subdivisions really hard. Again, if the path had been a hundred yards or so one way or the other, it would have missed the homes. This area was in Sanford and they had quite a few officers out blocking access to residents only. I heard the same thing was happening in Fayetteville which was hit as well.
We have had decent weather since the storm which gave people time to salvage what was salvageble. It does %^&*( stink cleaning up the possessions after these disasters. Does not get easier and it surely ^&*( stinks when people die. I was talking to one of the member of VFD that responded after the storm and found the victims. At least they were able to find the people quickly and do what they could. If the victims had been IN what was left of the trailers it would have taken quite a bit of work to get them out.
My granny had a saying, "Thank your lucky stars." I said that after the tree was hit by lightning and I was mumbling "Thank your lucky stars." cleaning up the house and seeing the destruction as I was driving. It could have been us....
Later,
Dan
