After the Storm

All day yesterday I had a raging headache. I knew there must be a killer storm brewing, but the weather forecast only said 30%.  No one took the weather forecast seriously. It's summer. It's Atlanta. It's give or take.

Since Evie has Hand Foot Mouth all week, I was getting a bit of cabin fever.

And so was Evie.

So we decided to go to out to dinner near the mall, about 15 minutes away. Eric needed pick up something near there anyway.

While we were there I looked out the window and noticed it was raining. Hard.

Then out of nowhere everyone in the restaurant's phones started sounding the tornado warning siren.  No tornado watch had previously been issued.

Eric and I weighed the pros and cons of quickly driving home or being stuck at Fudruckers for an unknown amount of time with a sick toddler past her bedtime.  

We had NO IDEA how bad it really was out there until we got about a third of the way home. It was hailing, pouring buckets, and there were WAVES of water going down the street. Eric very slowly and very carefully drove us home. 

As we rounded the corner to our house it became clear that some strong tornado like wind had hit our area.  There was debris everywhere.  And then trees down blocking neighborhood intrances. Signs several yards away from where they were once standing.  And I started to pray for our house.  Our sweet little house.

We drove in to our neighborhood and the first few houses looked fine, at least for what we could see through the rain. But then we started seeing branches down and a basketball goal tipped over.

When we rounded the corner to our street all I could see was our neighbors mail box complete ripped out of the ground.

And within 15 minutes of our arrival home. The rain stopped. The wind stopped. And the sun came out for just a moment.  It was like it never happened.

The coolest part about last night was around 8:45 pm after it was all over. The neighbors flocked outside with saws and lawn equipment. Just walking around helping each other clear the debris.  And get fallen trees out of the way.

This morning Evie and I went for a long walk.  Did I mention the cabin fever? Oy.

We found neighbors out cleaning up.  I spoke with one man who had a tree fall on two of his cars. He said nothing matters since his family is okay.  Amen, friend!

So thankful that we are okay. And grateful that this is the only damage.  Every house in our neighborhood has power and is in great shape.  A few missing shutters and downed trees but the lives houses and lives were spared.  Thank you, Jesus!

Evie's pool blew from the other side of the house to this side, flipped over and filled with water! We certainly have nothing to complain about.

In hindsight part of me is so thankful we weren't home because I would have been a nervous wreck. And part of me says we were freaking stupid to drive home through that storm. We were very, very, very lucky to make it home safely.