100 Year Storm My Ass!
We get complacent sometimes and fall into the fantasy that we have control over our destiny. What silly little creatures we are.
Weeping Willow / Multiple Branches Down
I suppose that folks in New Orleans have begun to realize this. Folks in Tornado Alley have to deal with it on regular basis.
New Chrysler Sebring, somewhere under the tree
Here in Phoenix, we don't tend to get severe weather. It is mostly just really hot in the summer. But once in a while we get the 'Monsoons'. Really big thunderstorms that occur in late summer.
15th Ave / Major City Street
Every once in a while we get what is called a '100 Year Storm'. This is a storm so bad, it only happens about once every hundred years. But unlike the rest of the country, the storms here are very localized, usually happening in a 50 square mile area. They sprout up and are gone in 45 minutes. So for a particular part of the state, there will be at least one '100 Year Storm' each year.
One lucky Saturn owner
We got our 45 minutes of fame last Thursday night at round 9:30pm. Two inches of rain and 85mph wind gusts for 45 minutes. The aftermath the next morning was not pretty.
Tree falls on power line, power pole follows suit
We were without power for 3 days in 100 degree heat and 60% humidity without an ounce of breeze. In one night, Mother Nature took us back to the stone age.
The tree is obvious, the palm it took down with it isn't
We were lucky. Our house suffered no damage. The toll for the entire neighborhood is probably in the millions of dollars though. Several large old growth pine trees were uprooted from their base and fell onto houses.
Damaged wall, roof and car.
Just wanted to remind you all that life can change in an instant. So don't get too comfortable and smug. Nature is just taking her time getting to you. She gets to us all eventually.
Glad this wasn't my Jaguar
All pictures taken the next morning with my LG AX6800 cell phone.
Awesome blog and photos (your phone takes very good pics). Yes, we do tend to get complacent in life and I have been totally amazed each time I go bike riding of the damage that Central Phoenix sustained. We had some damage but overall very lucky. I am very well aware how life can throw you a curve ball...but you learn to go with the flow. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI love what you wrote about Mother Nature taking us back to the stone age, so true. Up here Mother Nature shows no mercy to us during the winter. For some reason she enjoys bringing us wicked and freezing weather. Last year we got hit with a record number of snow storms.
ReplyDeleteSuper pictures lotus. I love Arizona, such beautiful and scenic state. Happy Labor Day.
WOW! The storm at our house was pretty bad. We've never seen lightning like it...It was just a weird storm. Luckily, we didn't have any damage as the storm seemed to really pick up speed as it moved West. Glad your home was spared.
ReplyDeleteone word: whoa.
ReplyDeleteback home we'd only get hurricanes, and if anything, just flooded areas and no electricity, but NOTHING like those massive trees in your pictures..
and yes, the owner of that saturn is VERY lucky
Poor you with no electricity. And humidity with it? How absolutely horrible!
ReplyDeletewow... chalk me up as well as someone who didnt realize AZ gets that kind of weather on occasion.
ReplyDeletegood to know you're ok.
Wow, glad your home was okay and no one was hurt.
ReplyDeleteI still don't get why people live in areas that get hit nearly every year... living below sea level in a hurricane-prone area.
We get blizzards; but they don't have the death toll a hurricane does. Oh, and the rare tornado, but that IS rare.
Great photos, as usual. Take care. Here's to another 100 years before another storm like that hits.
So true about nature taking her time getting to us.
ReplyDeleteSo true, so true.
Mrs. Hall
Freaky photos. I never get complaicent about mother nature. Amazing camera on that phone of yours!
ReplyDeleteWhen I used to live in Casa Grande we got a couple of rain storms that were hard enough that people were actually rafting down main street. Now that I think about it that is quite strange... I think that the people across the street actually kept an innertube to use just in case the streets flooded.
ReplyDeleteWOW! Glad your home was spared. Those are some amazing pictures. For some reason, I'm especially amazed by that cross section of a palm. I've just never stopped to imagine what one would look like.
ReplyDeleteCRIKEY!!!!!
ReplyDelete