Early (really early) Monday morning (practically still night) I woke up to super loud wind outside. It wasn't a complete surprise, because we had wind back in December that blew our trampoline over the fence and 2 houses away. But this was turned up a notch. I got up in the dark to peek into the back yard and make sure the trampoline was still there. (We got smart and tied it to the fence after the last storm.) I watched in awe as the wind kept picking it up in the air, then it dropped back down to the ground. I got back up 3 times to check the weather, because I was just sure everything would be blown away. The trampoline stayed put, but I watched trashcans and garbage blowing away, as well as both neighbors' grills tip right over.
That was all before 5 am.
You know that feeling when you can't sleep, but you're still not coherent enough to understand what's going on? I knew it was windy, but it wasn't until 7 am that I looked at my phone and saw Facebook comments from everyone at Fort Carson saying they'd been up for hours and everything was getting blown away--including their fences, windows breaking, etc. I could visibly see shingles flying down the street. The power even flashed on and off a few times.
Then it got worse. The power went out... and stayed out... I won't win a parenting award for saying this, but I was filled with terror at the prospect of entertaining my kids all day, inside the house, without electronics.
Unfortunately, my phone battery dies quickly, so I couldn't spend all day following along with what was happening. But a few things I did catch:
- Cheyenne Mountain AFB (basically across the street from Fort Carson) recorded wind speeds of 101 mph. That's the equivalent of a level 2 hurricane.
- 21 semi trucks had tipped over around Colorado Springs. By afternoon, the department of transportation had banned all high profile vehicles from driving. Which meant no school buses to bring kids home from school (those few that actually made it there in the first place.)
Oddly, I don't think people knew how to respond to such weather. They initially tried to go on with business as usual. People reported for work, many went to school. (Although after several students already arrived, they announced school wasn't mandatory that day.) At noon, soldiers were put on lock down in their buildings because it wasn't safe to leave. Eventually, it got a little better and everyone was sent home.
Our power came back on for a few hours in the evening before staying off again for another 12 hours. It makes you start thinking about heat sources and emergency plans. (Most schools and all of Fort Carson was shut down Tuesday, primarily I think because many in the city were without power. But also because they did such a poor job of shutting down the day before.)
Tuesday morning I had such bad cabin fever that we braved the minor wind to go to the gym. Just outside the post, I saw half a dozen wooden power line poles broken in half like toothpicks. Crazy. Crews had to wait for the wind to die down before they could safely start repairing that kind of thing.
Unfortunately, the wind got pretty bad the rest of Tuesday, so we stayed inside. And continued on Wednesday. Our house is well positioned for the direction the wind was blowing, but it's crazy to see the damage around town. Every where I go there are huge sections of fencing missing, roof tiles missing (heck, whole roofs missing in some areas, although I haven't seen it specifically), our neighbors' car windows broke, another neighbor had their back door glass shatter, the park is filled with trash cans, and trees are down. (The picture at the top is my bedroom view--a bit pine tree fell down across the street.) We went to the park on Thursday and saw tons of branches down, along with other debris. It will take a while for the city to clean up.
Our little trampoline stayed put, albeit bent. And I was thankful that the kiddie pool blew right underneath it so I didn't have to go chasing it down the street again.
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