Then all of a sudden we heard this awful crash outside of our bedroom. We looked out the windows and couldn't see anything out of the norm. So we just thought the wind was making our neighbor's trash cans blow into our fence super hard. The kids all came in our room and we were all in our bed. Then Enrique was going to get in the shower and the kids and I went to look out the big window in the living room. It was still dark but we saw our huge tree fell over into our neighbor's yard. That's what that big noise was. We couldn't believe it! This tree was 60+ years old. It was super huge.
Needless to say, Enrique stayed home that day. I ran out to take photos, the wind was so bad. I was kind of scared because large objects were flying around everywhere. I came back in quick and then Enrique went out to take better photos, mine were yukie. While he was out there, our other tree started to lean over. Then we watched the earth start to bubble up around it. Then all of a sudden it fell over too. It was the most amazing thing to watch. We ran to the front of the house to look at the tree in the front. It was ok, or so we thought.
The wind was howling through the windows and sounded really bad. Anytime we opened the front door, you had to put all your weight into it to get it to close, the wind was so strong. We looked out the window a few minutes later and the front tree was starting to lean. Enrique ran downstairs to ask Mark for his keys to move his car out of the driveway just to be safe. Then he hurried and got the car and the van out of the garage.
While he was doing that the kids were about ready to cry. They were really scared. They all had gone into my room and sat on the bed. Isabel started saying "this is just like when Jesus was sleeping on the boat and there was a bad storm and the men were scared, Jesus woke up and said a prayer without closing his eyes and folding his arms and then the storm stopped. So I think we should say a prayer and the storm will stop." So we came out to the living room, Enrique came in and I had Isabel tell him the very same thing. We all knelt down, Isabel said a prayer, some of which she asked for the wind to stop, the tree not to fall on our house, for us to be safe, and our neighbors to be safe and not get hurt.
As soon as she said amen, the wind got worse. She climb on the couch looking outside and said, "my prayer didn't work" and we said sometimes it just needs a bit more time. Well within minutes we see the tree in the front start to bubble up around the trunk. It was going to smash the garage for sure. I ran and got the video camera and got outside just in time.
I started videoing and then passed it to Enrique. Just then, Mark is blown across the yard as the tree is falling over. It barely got the side of the garage. So Isabel said,"my prayer worked. The tree didn't fall on the house."
After the tree fell over, I ran out and took photos. While I was out there, someone's roof of a metal shed was flying down the street and every time it hit the road it would spark. Then it hit a few cars and ended up under our tree that was in the front. It wasn't a small piece of metal roof either. It was as long as our garage door is wide, it was very big. Then I turned around to look at our neighbors damage and they have a Bronco stuck on a trunk of a tree up in the air, off the ground, mixed in with all the broken trees and power poles that came down.
The strong winds lasted about 10 hours or so, from start to finish. Around 2pm we got in the van to go look at all the damage around. It was shocking. Hundreds of trees were down all over. Homes had their roofs ripped apart, siding ripped off, and lots of shingles ripped off too. A lot of power poles either fell over or broke in half or in three's. It was just insane.
It was too cold in our house and it was too dangerous to start a fire with those winds, so we went to Sean's house because he still had power. We were there for a while and then decided to just sleep there, so I ran home and packed up, using a flashlight. The kids absolutely loved the sleepover with their cousins.
First tree to go down about 6:30am.
Second tree to go down about 7:00am.
Third tree to go down about 7:30am.
