A tornado in my own backyard

Last Saturday night, the counselor and I, along with the kids went out to dinner to celebrate Grandpa Lofgreen’s birthday.  There was a beautiful lightning show and it started raining just before we left the restaurant.  By the time we were several minutes into the drive, we realized this was not your typical rainstorm.  The rain was literally blowing horizontal and it was difficult to see the road.  

We came home to a house with no power and had cake and ice cream by candlelight.  

At this point, the storm had died down and the weather was breezy and cool.  All in all, it was a beautiful night.

When it was time for everyone to leave, we walked outside and my neighbor called for us to come over.

This is what we witnessed (these pictures were taken the next morning). 

There was a fallen tree in her front yard.

And a fallen tree in her backyard.

Pictures don't do justice of how huge these trees are.

Her two 40 foot pine trees had toppled over.

That’s right.  They were blown down by the wind.

Our neighborhood had experienced a tornado.

It was like a war zone, with trees down at almost everyone's house.

It was 11:00pm before we walked back home.  Still no power and the street was completely black.

The power finally came on around midnight.  

The counselor walked into the backyard to check out the pool, complaining that it would be full of pine needles and storm debris, but this is what he saw instead.

Our other neighbor’s 40 foot pine tree had snapped about 10 feet up and had fallen in our backyard. 

It had been so dark, we hadn’t seen it.

Our huge pink grapefruit tree was crushed.

Hundreds or grapefruit litter the ground.

You can just see what used to be the kids Little Tikes jungle gym, buried underneath the mess.

The miracle is no one was hurt.  The tree didn’t hit the house

or the trampoline (the kids want to point this out).

The block wall and pool fence are just fine too.

If any of her other pines would’ve fallen, they would’ve crashed into our house.

Today,  the tree is being chopped up and we have more firewood then we know what to do with.

And it’s a day to count my blessings.