What was I saying about inconvenienced by a monster tropical storm....Oh yeah.

Well tropical storm Francis just nailed middle Georgia. About 9:30 pm last night trees started coming down in winds that must have gusted to 60-65 miles an hour. My wife and I went to bed at about 10 o'clock with the wind rocking this old trailer and I could not rest. I was resting my hand on the wall and could feel it bend with the wind. At about 12 I heard a strange kind of thumping,bume bume. Not wanting to get up I layed there listening to the storm and the rat-a-tat of rain being driven off of the aluminum siding. Finally at 12:30 am to restless to stay in bed, I got up, and pulled the cover off of the window. With all of my security lights on I looking out of the window into an eerie night yet something was wrong. I looked up into the sky and could see where I should not be able to. "HEY", I said out loud," We've got a tree down". It had fallen across the road and was blocking the rest of the park. My wife jumped out of bed and we started going around the house looking out the windows. Again I said uh-oh. I saw oak leaves and brancehs around my car. Oh-boy, it's 14 year old Toyota with 177 thousand miles on the odometer and I only had liability on it. The car still runs good and I would be hard pressed to replace it. Well bless it the limbs missed my car. Whew. My wife and I stayed up for a little while longer marveling at the storm and how God had protects us .

21,000 people lost their electricity in the county. Our power co. flint is kicking butt and we are down to 6000. 72000 in Macon and Bibb county and over 400,000 in Georgia. This was one giant long winded momma. Flash flooding, the rescues (6 people rappled back across a raging stream that the day before they walked across) schools out, fire trucks screaming around all night. It was 105 miles an hour at land fall in Florida and still gusting up to 65 after crossing the peninsula and clawing it's way up the pan handle and into the state. Awesome.

I have been in some storms before especially up in northern Wisconsin in the winter. The coldest I ever saw was 60 below with 100 below windchill. The highest winds in thunderstorms coming off of the plains and out over lake Superior often reached 100 mph briefly, but to be caught in a tropical storm (only a tropical storm) that rages on for hours was frightening and exhilerating. I don't think I can imagine what it would be like to have been at the point of land fall. It must be a completely life changing experience.