What Hurricane??? This Hurricane!!!

This morning we woke up to the lovely sound of rain The first real rain of the season. Ahhhhhhhh a wee bit early but who's going to argue. That was to suppose to be the start of my post yesterday......

Now mind you the weather gods had predicted that we could expect to get some rain from the tropical storm moving up the coast. LW left early to head to the resort end of town. I grabbed the camera to take some pictures to post with a little tid bit about the rainy season looked to be early this year. I took pictures of lovely rain drops on my patio plants

I took a picture of our "Patio Water Feature" I thought I'd tell you how we bought a clear storage bin and a small fountain pump. Stuck it in the corner and placed the plants in front of it, in order to hide it. So that for oh less then $20.00 you can have the lovely sound of water splashing . Hmmm can you see the rain is picking up a bit it's starting to bubble in the rubberma...expensive OOAK water feature???

Oh look at that, the water is puddling up. This is going to be one nice first day rain :)

Though things were beginning to get a bit wild in a hurry especially along the sea wall

But then the wind started to pick up and the rain was really coming down in sheets. No thunder and lightening but we can get those momentary loss of powers that when it comes back on it'll curl the wires of your computer and them fry them like a BAD perm :( The four legged kids and I started around the house unplugging the desk top, and other electronic items. Just as we all squeezed into the 3 square feet around my desk, and I started to upload my patio pictures (PS the lap top was on it's battery) there was a HUGE I mean HUGE enough for everyone to try to jump in my lap BOOM!!!!!! Along with a flash of electrical light. Yikes that didn't sound good We checked around upstairs nope every thing's okay up here. Better make sure everything is where it should be downstairs. Walked into the kitchen looked out the window through the garage and "By God" the 60 ft pine tree that belongs vertically in the front yard of the house across the street is now laying horizontally across the street with it's tip pushed up against the edge of our garage gate. The tree demolished the gate across the street. Oh and see those black lines hanging ??

Those are the phone and power lines That could have been the cause of the flash of light. Ya think??

Remember how our houses are attached one to another??? See the top of the tree is not only up against our gate but also the neighbor's. Only that's not the worst of it. Look carefully that's the front grill of the neighbor's van peeking out from under the tree!!! :(

Thankfully no one was hurt, and surprisingly there wasn't horrendous damage to the van :)

Except for a bit of water that blew in under the doors, a bit of debris and sludge we came out unscathed.

LW ended up taking shelter at one of the coffee shops and then picked his way home around downed trees. portable lawn furniture and puddles that resembled the fjords of Scandinavia. He was even glad the "yellow submarine" had 4/4 :) We ended up being without power for 12 hours. But the power company worked until they got it hooked back up at 12:30 am

Some buildings did have some major damage. The first picture is a dance club right on the sea wall. What you are looking at is the fake front that was put up to cover the old building. Guess they forgot to get the hurricane rating on that stuff?? A number of the new condo/ towers built up in the resort area, didn't do well. Windows where ripped out, along with other pieces that need to stay attached to a building to be safe. I'm not sure where some of these owners were when brains were handed out, but it seems to me that if you are going to buy a condo on the beach one might wonder why there were no hurricane shutters installed. But then that's just me :)

As always Bloglandians, have a most audacious today or tomorrow depending on where in the world you are ;)

PS. If you are wondering why there are no pictures from our walk today, it's because there was nothing to take pictures of. This city is amazing!! Literally minutes after a big storm the city mobilizes and within 36 hours it's hard to tell there was a hurricane at all. As for the tree in the street. Because it fell in the street and virtually closed it off to traffic the city was here this morning to cut it up and open up the road. Now don't ask me when the truck will be by to pick up all the tree debris, but they'll get here.....