Nasty storm

knocking over anchored soccer goals, like in the first picture below. Then it let up just a bit an considered a "microburst" and a severe thunderstorm. No matter what it was called, it wasWell it's not officially being called a tornado despite numerous sightings, but it is beingd the kids were claiming they saw a funnel cloud. Some took that lull and ran to their cars. But most stayed put a little longer. That's when the hail started coming. At first it was cover. Some headed for their cars (mistake). Soon the rain was pouring and the wind was kicking up ferociously. We were all directed to the concession stands and bathrooms to take directed everyone into the dugouts in case of lightning. That lasted until the wind started the distance. Radar indicated the storm was passing well to the north of us. The umpire quite an experience. We were getting ready for Kevin's baseball game and could hear thunder in pea-sized, but then it progressed to quarter and golf ball sized hail (with just a few even larger). It was so loud banging on the roof and everyone was afraid of windshield damage on their cars. Kevin and I just wanted to get HOME to our family and check on the girls. The fog coming off the hail was unreal.

This picture was taken almost 2 hours after the storm cleared. These are nearly golfball sized hail stones even after that much time passed.

Baseball players checking out the fog and hailstones after the storm.



We finally got home, but had to do some adventurous driving through fog like I've never seen and through people's yards to avoid downed trees and power lines. The family was fine and, thankfully, NO damage to our house. Others were not so lucky.



Today, the girls stared cleaning up the leaves that were stripped clean off the trees.


This is Elena in front of our house as soon as I got home.

This is a house in our neighborhood that was smashed by a tree that was blown over. Once I got home and made sure everything was OK, then it was time to check on friends. Most had minor damage, but one house was worse than the picture below.


Kevin and I had to grab a chainsaw and start taking an enormous oak tree off the house of one of our church friends. We'll be going back there after work today. We worked there until it was too dark to see and another storm started coming in and the lightning got bad, so we went home for the night. The whole city was out of power most of the night. Ours finally came back on at 4am. We still don't have Internet. I'm doing this at work. What a storm!

Anyways, all is well now and we were blessed to not be harmed and our property not damaged other than tree limbs.