Take Shelter!

This is a back blip...was not possible to post until today May 22..

I was out on the deck when the Amber Alert alarm blared out of my cell phone...it is an alert used in the case of an abduction, asking us to be on the look-out for the suspect and the car...but this time it was a storm warning - the first time they have used the system for a storm. A severe storm with winds of 120 kph, hailstones the size of our two-dollar coin and possibly tornadoes was approaching...Seek Shelter! Best to pay attention to THAT!  I barely had time to batten down the hatches outside, to safely stow items that would become missiles, when the first rain drops came..and then all hell broke loose. 

The storm hit, and boy did it hit. Blinding rain blown by incredible winds that whipped up everything its path..trees came down, limbs were torn off and in minutes, it was gone..leaving debris everywhere! 

There are some young fellows living in our neighbourhood now who love to do manly things like run snowblowers and chainsaws and pull things with their trucks...so, just as they had cleared our streets of all that snow from the worst storm of last winter, they got right to work this time and cleared the streets of trees and debris..( extra).  The town did not have to send clean-up crews to our neighbourhood to get traffic flowing...they did it for them! Kudos to them! 

Of course we thought the damage in our area was pretty bad, but we really had no idea of what had happened elsewhere. When that storm whipped through, the power went out...and it stayed out...no tv, radio, wifi or phone service..and even no cell phone service - at least from my provider...so any news of the extent of damage was gathered only from the reports of neighbours who were elsewhere when it hit and could tell us how bad it was there. 

By bedtime, we still did not have power and it did not look promising even for overnight; rumour had it that it could be days...so off to bed I went, oblivious to what had really happened out there and of course, with no way to post a blip. Hence..this back blip! 

PS: The storm did put a damper on those gardening plans I had for the day..I had made a good start though and was intending to use the demise of all those thistles in my front shrubbery bed as my blip for the day, but my prowess with the spade was overshadowed by the power of Mother Nature and her little surprise..and there was no more gardening after that.