Last Monday night the local weather took an odd turn. It started out like a typical, lovely summer evening. Until, in the span of about 20 minutes the sky when from a pinky sunset to a pea green grey sky. The rain which began in small sprinkles quickly transformed into sheets of horizontal rain. In other part of the city Hail pummeled the trees, gardens, vehicles and buildings.
Our own home fared well with only an intense and aggressive watering. Two blocks away at my mother's house people got about 2"-3" of hail. West of us they got more hail. Hail and rain so aggressive that nearly everyone will need new roofs and siding.
Down in Wheat Ridge, where our school is, seemed to have gotten the worst of it. You can see where the tornado or nearly tornado went. It left a trail of destruction in its pathway. On the north end of the school all of the windows that were still glass (many are plexiglass) were blown out. The wind whipped through the side stage, past the stage in the theater, and through to the other side stage. Luckily the floor was covered in thick black plastic for a performance. It surely would have been ruined. It was incredible to find leaf bits in the main hallway. The wind took off part of the roof cap and striped the plants of their vegetation. In a Land of Oz like fashion we found that a piece of someone else's fence took down our fence. I am not even sure of where it came from. The building flooded in parts.
The area looked like, well, a tornado had hit. Huge trees were pushed down, their root balls exposed, turf pulled up like a blanket on a bed. Cars and trucks were crushed under their falling. Houses had most of their windows blown out. One house was pulled up off the foundation and flung elsewhere. Amazingly, I did not hear of anyone being injured during the storm.
Larr and Ethan went over around 10:30p.m. and stayed until about 1:00 a.m. trying to secure the building. Larr called service offices at midnight so we would be on the top of their duty for the day schedules. Many people from the school community showed up with brooms in hand. We got the cleaning done that day.
The woman who owns this house just sat, crying. She said she didn't even know where to begin. Within the last two years she had the entire house redone and lanscaped. Her house and yard were in terrible shape.
Ethan helped some of the older neighbors by cleaning the leaf clutter off of their roofs so that they would not be pulled off from the weight. The girls and I offered to help other neighbors clean up their messes. While it was a devastating event for many, it was also an opportunity to come together and create a sense of unity, as well as accomplishment.
Here's a great video of an Italian Coca Cola ad that is inspiring:
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