HOWEVER......
About 4:00 I realised these storms were not going to go away! I quickly drove over to the church to pick up Chelsea and her friends, Danielle and Kayla. They had been swimming at a friend's house. We got home about 4:45 - just as VERY LARGE rain drops began to fall. Nigel had come home at noon to work from home. So we were all there as the wind began to pick up and the rain fell more violently. At one point it was raining so hard I could not see the house across the street! The trees were blowing around - it was very scary. Of course, by this time the tornado sirens are blaring and I'm wondering if we should actually go into the bathroom. But no, we stand looking out the windows in awe of the storm. (yes, we are idiots) About 5:00 the lights flicker and go out. At this point I look out the front door and the tiny little creek in front of our house has grown into a raging river! I could hardly believe it! I had seen it swell before, but this was up into our yard!
Very quickly, the rain began to subside, the creek began to recede back to normal, but the lights were still out (and, more importantly, the AC). Of course, now that the "danger" was over, the girls started asking, "What's for dinner?" HA!!! We decide the best idea was to go out to eat. So the 6 of us ate at McAlisters Deli. They have 2 TV's there so we could catch up on the weather and what has happened in the rest of Memphis. After eating Nigel and I think the power has probably come back on so we venture back to our house....
NO POWER.... So we decide to have family game night by candle light! :-) Actually, candles, flashlights and a propane lantern. We played Blurt and Uno until 9:30pm then took Chelsea and her friends over to Danielle's house to spend the night. I'm not sure why they just didn't stay with us.....
It turned out to be a good decision: Danielle's power came back on about 5:00am - ours did not... :-( When I woke up on Saturday morning, I went running to check out the 'damage' to our neighborhood. Lots of limbs and small trees down in many yards. We were one of the lucky ones: no trees down, only small limbs and leaves. So when I came back from my run I started cleaning up. Kirsten came out to help me, so we made quick work of the whole thing. Still no power.....
Kirsten began house sitting on Saturday for a neighbor and luckily they did have power!!! (and a pool!!!):-) We knew we had a place to go to cool off! So we went and picked up Chelsea and her 2 friends and stayed the afternoon by the pool and in the air conditioned house! About 5:45pm the power came back on at our house!!! YAY!!!
Now for Round Two....
Sunday morning I woke up to the sound of thunder.... So I got up and turned on the TV... yes, another line of storms almost on us! It was not quite as windy, but LOTS of rain in a short amount of time (2.5 inches). I watched in amazement again as our little creek became a raging river again! Only this time one our our trees fell over!!!!!!! AND the water came up A WHOLE LOT CLOSER to our house this time!!! I guess after all the rain on Friday night (2.5 inches also) this water had no where to go.... Again, luckily, this rain sped through very quickly and left us cleaning up the yard again. We have a chain saw and Nigel cut up most of the small branches, but we will need to call a tree service to get the large trunk removed.
I'm thankful for two things:
1. We have power (and AC!!)
2. I'm thinking I will not have to water the grass for a while.... :-)
These first two picks show the creek when it was up in our yard. The second on shows the downed tree and how the water is coming up over the trunk!
This one shows the tree after it stopped raining...
These last two show the creek from our driveway bridge: the second picture is a more "normal" view of our creek. You can see that Nigel would have been swallowed up by the water....!
Mother Nature is really very amazing!!!!!
