Tornado In The Hood!
John and I have this weather jinx that tends to follow us around the world. I think I may have mentioned it here before. We have made it snow in Vegas and Arizona when we visited, we drove into Mexico to find some warmth but the cold followed us there too and we had to huddle in a hot tub to keep warm. We took a trip to Tunisia, you know, in AFRICA and although we stood on the Sahara Desert the cold followed us there too. I have photos of us sitting by our hotels deserted pool side bundled up in sweaters and blankets. People thought we were crazy but we paid good money to sit by that pool so we were going to do it no matter how chilly! A couple of years ago we went to Maui for a holiday. The weather was so cold while we were there that we did not once dip our toes in either the pool or the ocean. Too cold. We spent Christmas in Florida this year and the state broke records for cold temperatures while we were there. We travelled back home to Vernon just in time for the coldest week of the year. Awesome.
So we have now just arrived back in Florida. The weather had been gorgeous; hovering around 30 Celsius and sunny. As soon as we stepped off the plane clouds started rolling in. No big deal. It’s still nice and warm. The rain started to fall, gently at first and then a little harder and a little harder. Whatever! Screw you weather demons, we will not be deterred!
Oops! Probably shouldn’t have said that.
A tornado just blew through our neighbourhood. You can literally see the path it took. There are grapefruits and oranges rolling on the ground all over the place but the trees they came from are gone. People’s boats and cars are upside down and on top of sheds. Metal mailboxes are twisted and pulled out of the ground, fences are down and garages are warped. Yikes! (I’m thinking seriously of looking for small animals to sacrifice in the hope of appeasing the weather Gods.)
But our house was left completely unscathed. Not one broken branch on our giant oak tree in the front while our neighbours tree right beside it is completely gone. Their fence is down too while ours still stands strong. My step son is staying with us right now and his (un-insured) rental car had trees come down all around it but every one of them missed his car. Hmm. So we bring the bad weather but it doesn’t damage our stuff. Maybe the weather Gods are on our side after all.
Here are a few pictures I took from around our neighbourhood. I don’t think I’ll tell any of the neighbours about our luck with weather though. Don’t want them to run us out of town. Also, is it shallow to complain about what this weather does to my hair?
For better pictures (taken by professionals) check out this link: Tornado in Largo Some dramatic shots of our neighbourhood in there. All the 113th and 130th Ave are of our ‘hood.
6 Comments
Chris
WOW !! I checked out the website pictures and was shocked by the severity of the damage. Did you and John know it was going on while inside?
Very thankful you guys are ok — and your property too.
And maybe don’t come back to Vernon (quite yet)….we have been having some nice days since you left 🙂
jacquie
So sad! You didn’t say if anyone was hurt so I’m hopeful no one was. All the property can eventually be cleaned up and replaced, but what gets me is the beautiful old trees that are lost forever! They add so much to a neighbourhood.
I’m so pleased to see you still have yours!
Careful with the animal sacrifice jokes…PETA is everywhere! Oh wait, Tara Cronica could use the publicity! Joke away!
Tracy Westerholm
Bon Bon,
I am sooooooo happy everyone is okay! I am trying to look for the lesson in this? Mother Nature is a powerful force…done anything bad lately that you want to talk about? 🙂
I am not sure you and John are candidates for living in locations where weather is iffy? I guess a perm is out of the question? I don’t mean to make light about the horrible experience you just had but you do know me better than anyone and you know I ‘hide’ behind humor at times!! This is one of them, can’t even start to walk down the path of worrying about you and where you live. nuff said!
It is starting to be a pattern though, perhaps you should both visit countries who are experiencing drought and look at yourselves as ‘good weather gods’ ?
Seriously though, nothing good about having to rebuild anything that was already standing, but we do what needs to be done, help our neighbour and community to move forward! You can help do that! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
PS. I just checked out the link of photos taken and I apologize for making light of this! The damage was awful! You are fortunate, may other were not! Very frightening for everyone involved!
Svaha to all!
xo
Jane
What a horrible experience for all involved. Glad to hear you and yours are fine.xo
Kevin J. Timothy
Bonnie,
You guys are much more blessed than you think! To think that the rental car missed all of this chaos is amazing. The last thing you want was to be in the middle of some drama with an insurance and car rental company. Further south (here) in St. Pete we managed to miss any tornado activity. We did get dark skies and the down pour, though. I guess this beats the hurricane season, where storms cover a much wider area and is more consistent.
Bonnie Johnson
I have not heard of any serious injuries occurring.
We just drove through the neighbourhood again and were amazed at how quickly things have been cleaned up. There are hardly any trees left on the ground. John spent hours sweeping our cul de sac and then a city truck came by and swept any debris up so he really didn’t need to do it. That was a little heart breaking for him. 🙂
We were so lucky considering how close it came to us, but I have to admit, after knowing we were safe we found it kind of exciting. I’ve always loved a good storm and that was a whopper!
You’re right about the trees Jacquie, our neighbour right next door was upset that the large tree she planted when her son was born (I think he is around 20) was destroyed. Better trees than people though.
Thanks for all of your concern. Today is a beautiful sunny and hot day here and we are loving it. xo