Oriel's House of Fluffy Pancakes

8 Seconds

Thursday, May 11, 2006 it rained on and off lightly all day. It was also sunny on and off all day. It was as if the sky just couldn't make up it's mind or there was a lively conversation between the sun and rainclouds. Nothing all that new. This is the "monsoon season" in Chattanooga. This sort of thing happens frequently and I guess April missed it's chance so May is making up for the lack of showers.

It was 10:35pm and Levi and I were just about to turn in for the night. I was excited that I was actually going to get to sleep before it was tomorrow for a change. He was pouring himself an oj and I was heading out of the kitchen when we both stopped rather abruptly. The sound of sudden loud high winds was rather out of place since it had only just minutes before started a very mild drizzle. With that came smallish hail pelting the windows and a little howling sort of wind. Levi told me to go and get into Analeasa's room and be with her. I hesitated, asking him to check the weather to see if we are expected to get tornados (as we infrequently this time of year have been known to sight the funnel clouds and experience some minor damage) so that we can move to the basement if necessary. I'd rather not just huddle with my sleeping child if I can do better to protect her.

As he was pulling the website on the already running laptop that was only a step away from him (this ought to convey that no time was wasted we are still only seconds into this--no real thinking time) we heard a loud crack/crash/boom thing and we both jumped. Ok. the house isn't really safe. I rushed into Analeasa's room and he said he'd go check outside just to get a quick feel of the current situation. I wanted to watch to make sure he was ok and see for myself so I went to the door and then to the window. The hail had stopped and the wind died down the rain had picked up and was now somewhat heavy.

OH! Gasp! Sharp intake of breath! and a bit of trouble regaining normal breathing patterns. God, thank you for sparing us. Thank you for warning us. Oh, but what about Bonita? is she ok? Levi, what if she's not ok?

He decided to brave the rain and check to see that our neighbor across the alley was OK as the 100 year old Pecan tree that sits on our side of the alley was now fully uprooted and the top was on her house. At this point it has been about a minute from the initial windy noise (we took quite a while to happen upon the cause of the crash 10 seconds after the wind) and Levi ran out in the rain with little more than torn flannel pants to do what he could to rescue a neighbor possibly in need. Turns out she was watching TV in the back and thought that one of her plastic deck chairs had blown off. Her house was brushed by the tree as it came crashing down and nestled itself pretty tightly all over the alley side.

Then we checked in the front and there was a large portion of a tree down in the road right at the blind curve where everyone drives (even in rain at this hour of night) about 45 MPH. This was also right across the street from our house.

Ok, what amazes me about this is, well, a lot. The whole of the heavy-ish rain lasted ten minutes the actual wind lasted ten seconds and the hail was only half of that. And about an hour after it all started, when we had a chance to look up, there was the moon almost full and stars and light white clouds floating on their merry way. No evidence that anything happened. As I told Analeasa the next morning, this was God trying to get someone's attention and I'm not about to assume that it wasn't me.

We've had bigger hail, higher winds, longer rain, and still had not so much as a small limb on the ground to show for it. Two years ago there were tree guys out here for several weeks cleaning up massive damage as a result of several days (a week or so) of heavy non-stop rain and then plenty of high winds. Everything was soaked and heavy and when the wind picked up for that length of time the trees just couldn't hold on. But this was nothing like that. We've had our daily hour or so of rain, but plenty of sun and nothing was waterlogged--perfect growing season here. And they didn't snap off as if they were dead, they uprooted. God pushed those trees over.

Oh, and there's no other place that big tree in the back could have fallen without any damage to anyone Had it landed any differently, it would have killed Bonita, done damage to any of 4 homes, 5 cars, a shed, or our yards. The neighbor who usually parks where it did fall randomly decided to park in a new spot. And no one lost power til the people came and cut it off (still don't know why they did that--the neighbors across the street lost cable and internet though). There were several trees pushed over and at least 6 that the city had to clean out of the roads the next morning, but they told me that they hadn't seen any damage to homes and everyone was ok.

Most people couldn't figure out why they couldn't get through on the streets. Why were all these trees in the road. What happened? That's how quick and unexpected and isolated it was.

Levi went around the immediate neighborhood to survey the damage and there was a tree in the main street and a car had crashed into it, but everyone was just fine besides the fact that their car was slightly damaged, but very stuck. A tree had fallen from a wooded lot and was resting on the power lines and threatening to fall into the road, but no one was affected there and the fire dept. babysat that one all night. The one in the curve in front of our house actually fell on the Cook's van and she told me that her son was in an accident only weeks before that totalled their other car and now they had nothing to get their three kids to school, one to a game and her to work in. They borrowed our car next am and all was well. It made for a, although frighteningly awakening, rather entertaining night and next day. And, no, I didn't make it to bed before it was tomorrow.

I don't think it was a tornado, but it doesn't matter. God pushed those trees over for a reason and He spared everyone. I for one am not going to ignore the message to me. God is in control. He is powerful. I can trust Him. And I better listen up and do what He says. Stop trying what I want. Pay attention. He loves me. The bench that sat against the trunk of the pecan was unmoved, untouched, despite the tons of tree trunk that smashed to the ground only inches away. Remember when Fezik said in The Princess Bride? "I didn't have to miss." This is the mighty hand of our loving God.

I took pictures the next morning and then realized that my film never loaded. Drat! I really need a digital. But then I'd load the disk wrong or something. I went and took more as they were cleaning up the first tree.

So, I'm gonna try to attatch a couple of the best so that I'll have it all documented somewhere.

Posted by oriel at May 20, 2006 08:02 AM | TrackBack