10 minutes of destruction....

We were hit especially hard by the storms Tuesday night. My next door neighbor's house had a tree land on it, lightning struck two trees across the street and 3 doors down had a tree land on their house, as well. My other next door neighbor's tree is dangling and she is awaiting a crew to come remove it before it falls or someone or something. We have had no power since Tuesday night. Thank God we have a generator that kicked on immediately and has saved our food and given the kids a couple of lights and a tv for videos, but of course, it isn't enough power to have air conditioning and it was getting pretty hot in here. We put in a small room unit in the family room and will all sleep in there tonight. We told the kids it's going to be our "indoor camping adventure." It definitely makes it bearable! :-)

The electric company gave our street "partial power" last night. With that, I am able to use the computer and wanted to let everyone know that we're ok, a bit shaken up, but thank God, fine and our house wasn't damaged at all. Many think a small tornado went through this neighborhood. I wouldn't doubt it. This afternoon, I took the kids to Chuck E Cheese. We needed to get out somewhere that was air conditioned. They had a blast.

Please keep all of the residents of my neighborhood in your prayers. The destruction is unlike anything I have ever seen in person before.

The first photo is of my neighbor's house from the front. (our home is on the left). This second photo is from our backyard looking toward their house. This tree is estimated to have weighed about 17,000 pounds and their chimney is credited with saving their house and probably their family. It took the brunt of the weight and kept the tree from falling through. It obviously was knocked off and there are cracks all the way down it from the weight it bore. The tree was in their neighbor's yard. It was so huge that it was touching our house (2 houses down) once it fell.

This is a photo of the house across the street and 3 houses down that had a tree fall on it, as well. It really makes you in awe of the power of nature and how insignificant and powerless we really are. Thank God no one was hurt. Roofs, cars and chimneys can be replaced....