Well... DAMN!!! It's an amazing thing when I can say that I was hit by a tropical storm with winds gusting above hurricane strength while sitting at a football game, but DAMN!
So there I was at a Bengals Football game watching the Bengals SUCK so bad that the winds were just blowing over me and onto the field! The day was perfectly clear with no rain. A few clouds were WHIZZING by, but where I was sitting the breeze felt good on my developing sun burn.
Well I was sitting on the south end zone so the real wind was flying about 30 feet over my head and swirling onto the field. But I thought nothing of it. When one of the big score board billboards lost some lights and forced a main concourse to be closed I still thought nothing of it. But as I walked with the crowd up the road into downtown to my car I couldn't believe the winds! There were gusts where I had to act like a sky-diver and literally caught a 10 or 11 year-old kid who was being blown back by the dry warm winds! Trees were down, but still I thought it was a more localized thing.
So I get in my car, and knowing that the interstate was closed due to an overturned truck I took the overland route. OH MY GOD! It was utter devastation! Trees down everywhere. Debris strewn all over the place. Telephone and light posts snapped like twigs with wires down here and there.
When I got home to the northern suburbs it was worse! In my neighborhood over 4 dozen large trees had broken or been uprooted completely. these were 100 year-old oaks, maples, cherry, ash trees. The soft woods mostly fared better. But it seems like if a tree could fall over power lines, it did!
90% of Hamilton County was without power on Sunday. 80% Monday and Tuesday. And only just about an hour ago this area got power back (two and a half days after I first lost power) So a little wind storm and only about 1/3 of the way through the clean up! My poor next-door neighbor had a huge tree that fell over to the other neighbor's yard and took the power drop from the poles to the house and to the house beyond that! Those poor people are dead last on the priority list and it may be as long as three weeks before they see power! I've offered them an extension cord and a 20 amp circuit for one of their refrigerators. They've declined it so far. But I was going crazy without power for two and a half days. I can't imagine 3 weeks!
Last year's drought set the stage. Ike finished the job. And Duke Energy did its best to take three times as long to respond as needed!
I feel for the people of Texas. I only saw the last dying breath of Ike! This is the second time I experience this type of storm, and the first as an adult. But who'd have thunk it that a tropical storm would hit Cincinnati!
See ya
Tony
ps- the picture attached is from a friend's neighborhood where he will be without power until at least Thursday:
http://www.hugh57.com/ike/main/tdike-0048.jpg
