Things started getting bad as we drove from Vet's Memorial back to the house.
Giga noticed that the Broad street bridge felt like it was swaying in the wind.
The Deluxe Luxury Pick-Up had a U-Haul trailer attached with all the toys and we were getting pounded by the increasing winds.
The power was still on while were were heading home.
As we hit Clintonville, you could start to see the crazy shit that was happening.
There was a chair blown into a tree (above) at North Broadway and Indianola.
We pulled into the House of Love IV and Giga started quickly unpacking the trailer while I started trying to get the debris collected.
Yup! The fun had just started!
We decided to try and take the trailer back and save a day's rental so we left and ventured out again in the wind.
The farther we got out, the more it became apparent that the power was going out all over the place.
The U-Haul place reluctantly took the trailer but they were closing down because there was no power on Olentangy.
We went out trying to find some place to eat and that was a nightmare in and of itself because the storm kept picking up.
We ended up driving down 161 as power transformers were exploding and sparking and the various neighborhoods slowly but surely lost power.
The AllGeeks still had power so we ended up going there. We all went out and found a PennStation that was still powered.
Once we got home, the shit really started to hit the fan.
You could hear massive cracking outside.
One massive tree fell and completely blocked the street a few houses down. I ran down there and even with a shitty back and bad knees managed to help a few guys get it off the road.
The D's down the street lost a massive limb that came crashing down out front. They also had another massive limb come down in their driveway and amazingly it missed the house.
---
Obviously, the pictures can't convey anything since they are static.
There was no rain. It was even sunny at times. But it was all insane 40 mile and hour winds with major gusts up to 70mph!
It was creepily eerie because one associates storms with the rain and thunder and there was none of that.
Just massive amounts of wind blowing everything and anything everwhere.
---
I had a lot of branches come off the trees out front.
I honestly thought we'd come home and the dead maple would be either in the street or crashed into my house.
It dropped a few dead branches but remained stable.
We constantly were trying to keep the debris off the street and sidewalk.
The neighbor's fence was ripped down. Fences all around the city are like this.
Branches and limbs are hanging from trees.
Entire trees are uprooted on some streets. Many houses have trees in them now!
It was insane and it kept going on and on!
Clintonville was hit pretty bad but thankfully, I didn't see any real house damage on our street. F. and T. did lose some vinyl siding across the street.
A few blocks south, cars were damaged as trees fell into them.
And I can see from upstairs that a house on the other side of the block has parts of the roof torn off.
---
We are now on day 3 without power.
I've pretty much thrown everything out of the freezer and fridge.
I've cooked up a few things but sacrificed by beloved kielbasa because it felt like it had been too warm for too long to safely eat. *sniff*
I was off 2 days of work but am now back so I can communicate with the rest of the world and read news.
Hopefully, life will return to normal soon.
Man, hope you guys got through alright. It looks like my town (Orlando) after a hurricane comes through.
AEP's website now has detailed maps when power will be back on. We're due for Saturday.
i just read your entry on the toy convention.
it seems like you have a lot of crack to sell.
is there any way that i could purchase some transformers from you via an online transaction?
please let me know if this is something that you'd be interested in.
We got hit just as bad here in Louis-town. Lost two trees in our front yard and about an entire tree's worth of limbs in our back yard as well. Luckily enough the only damage to the house was some bent gutters.
We got power back on Tuesday evening at about 5pm, many of my friends were still without as of last night.
We also lost all of our food.
Not all bad, we didn't get hit with any kind of crazy freakout accidents, so we still had warm running water. I guess things could always be worse.
Good luck with everything, keep us posted on how things go out there and be careful on your cleanup we've been hearing ambulances left and right around town and it's mostly from people hurting themselves trying to do too much at once.