Got Some Wind Today

[bmac]

We've been having some wet weather over the past few days here in the "Sunny South" and today more rain was forecast. We were having a light rain this morning when I rolled out of bed about 8 AM (I know, kinda of late, but I had the day off so I slept in a little). During my mid-morning shower, things got real noisy - not thunder - but wind. Then the lights went out. Turned on the radio to hear that there was a tornado warning in our area. Looked out the window to find that, indeed, we did have some wind. In addition to several roof shingles in the back yard, I also found this little surprise.

 

[bmac]

Another view.

 

[bmac]

Rain subsided after lunch so my son and I got Ole Blue fired up to remedy the situation.

 

[bmac]

Finally, with a little help from the truck we saved the play yard. Still have to get it back to its original position and remake the monkey bars (which snapped off). But, the ground needs to dry up a little. At least we got it off the fence and made some temporary fence repairs to keep the dogs in. Of course, before we got around to this, the dogs found the 1 missing picket and had an adventure in the woods behind our house.

 

[EddieWalker]

Isn't it amazing how handy a tractor is. I bet when you bought it you never thought it woudl be used for picking up your kids play fort!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the pictures.

 

[bmac]

I've had some of my most fun tractor adventures with that play set. The set originally had another tower and these towers were connected by a large tube, similar to the spiral slide in the photo. When we put in our pool, it went where this play set was initially constructed. The new location could not handle both pieces, so we gave the other tower to a neighbor. We transported it to their house with a rented tractor (before I became an owner). It was "exciting" to say the least - my first tractor experience. It was after that when I learned about TBN and found out that I broke about every safety rule there is. Heavy weight on FEL which, by necessity was raised to full height, there was no counter weight on the rear end and I had to travel over some sloping areas. Thankfully, there were no "incidents". But my wife could not watch fearing the worst. When I showed her the pictures of todays adventure, she thanked me for doing this while she was away doing errands.

I might add that this fort is quite heavy. It has withstood 50 mph wind gusts without problems in the past. So, I can't say (nor do I believe) that there was a tornado here today, but we certainly had some significant winds for this thing to have been blown over. We also lost some siding material and, as I mentioned earlier, roof shingles. Power was out for about 7 hours due to trees falling on power lines.

 

[AMP762]

bmac,we got some of your wind up here about 2:30pm,it was raining sheets sideways /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif We didn't have any damage so its all good. Have a good turkeyday!

 

[GerardC]

Looks like the little fence made the task a little easier by holding it off the ground. Any other damage in the area? Gerard

 

[bmac]

<font color="blue"> it was raining sheets sideways </font>

As I mentioned, I was taking a shower when the storm came through so I only witnessed the aftermath. However, my parents are here for Thanksgiving and my dad said that the rain was, indeed, horizontal. Happy Thanksgiving to you, as well.

 

[bmac]

Gerard,
I am amazed that the fence didn't crumple under the weight of the play set. Several pickets will have to be replaced as the tops are broken off. But all-in-all, only minor damage there. An, yes, the playset resting on the fence did make the job much easier. Another interesting thing - my wife went up into the attic space to see if we were getting any water infiltration secondary to loss of shingles. This is unfinished space that has some plywood on the joists and we store some seasonal stuff up there. Where it is not floored, there is the typical blown-in insullation material and, where a cathedral ceiling is, fiberglass batting. Well, apparently, the wind coming through the gable-end vents was intense enough to scatter the blown-in material enough to coat many of the items we store up there. Some of the fiberglass batting was disturbed as well. Interesting.

Regarding other damage in the area, I don't know the full extent. In my subdivision, many homes with shingle damage. I noticed one house where the garage door was blown in. Driving around today I saw lots of trees broken or uprooted. Tree debris all over the place. All relatively minor stuff. Not your typical tornado damage - no houses leveled or anything like that. We have a lot to be thankful for. My parents and brother live in the Pensacola, FL area where they are still trying to recover from the hurricanes so I try to keep our little problems in perspective.