Mother nature struck again in Van Buren on Fathers Day Sunday night June 15th... I was sitting at home alone watching the telie and I heard it start to rumble very loud and deep in the near distance. I don't normally watch the news so I was not aware we were due to have storms. In fact, it had been a beautiful day. I had just got through mowing my yard a few hours earlier.
About 11:10 PM the storm came down like a raging bull. The winds were extreme and the lightning was like I have never seen before. I have been through a few storms and even witnessed a tornado from a few miles away but I was very uneasy and scared about this storm.
We had just started to finally recover from the storms we had in April that caused Van Buren and many other cities to be deemed disaster zones. I wrote about those storms in my blogs:
FEMA offers assistance to Crawford & Sebastian County residents
Scary night in Fort Smith and Van Buren... continued
Scary night in Fort Smith and Van Buren
The electricity kept going on and off every few minutes and it became quite eerie. Just when I decided I better tune into the news the power went off and stayed off. It was beyond black in my house except for the lightning flashs. I stayed out on my porch for some stupid reason... I actually felt safer watching the sky and watching what was happening. I could hear the trees moaning and creaking and the wind was just crazy. I really thought a tornado was going to rip through town or a tree was going to break and fall on my house.
I heard a loud creaking and then a snap and a crash... my neighbors tree was down in the street. Then a few minutes later the same thing happened across the street, and just caddy corner to me a tree fell on someones roof.
I was on and off the phone with my daughter who was at work and my grandkids and their other grandmother who were all in Fort Smith. They still had power so they were keeping me up to date on the storm.
I really thought the tornado sirens would go off at any moment but they never did. The storm lasted for about 45 minutes to an hour and then it was over. A few times I almost hid in the closet but it was so dark and the thought of a tree falling on the house was too scary. I felt I was safer where I could at least see what was happening. That was probably stupid now that I think about it!!!
I finally tried to go to sleep hoping the power would come on before morning. It was hard to sleep though because there was no electricy to power the fans and it was hot and humid and the sounds of police cars and fire trucks and the street dept was out with chain saws trying to clear the roads from all the trees that had been blown down.
I think I finally fell asleep about 3:30 in the moring. I woke to the sound of chain saws outside very early. It was 7am. I looked outside and it looked like a war zone. Tree limbs littered the yards and the streets.
After I got out and cleared my front yard of the debris, I decided to go see if I could get a cup of coffee somewhere. I had no power so I wasnt sure how much of the city had been hit. The street were lined with people and police cars and utility trucks and trucks with beds and trailers full of tree limbs.
I snapped a few picture with my cell phone but I didnt have much battery left amd no electric to charge it up. These were just a few of the sites I saw driving around my neighborhood.
These are were just a few of the pics I took trying to save my battery.
Long story short here...... The storms came through on Sunday night and power went out about 11:20pm that night. Fast forward until Wendesday afternoon about 3:00 and we finally got the power back on. Everything had to be thrown out of the fridge and freezer.... I had just went grocery shopping over the weekend. We had to eat out for 2 and a half days and we finally rented a hotel roon on Tuesday night when we realized we wou;ld be without power another night. I had bought some flashlights and a little lantern and a battery powed fan for the second night but Tuiesday night I had my grandkids back at my house and it just wasnt working to not have power or food or cool air. All toll this storm cost my at least $500 out of pocket that I didnt have to spend.
Many homes and vehicles were damaged by downed trees falling on them.
Today is Thrusday and they have finally started to get the majority of the tree damage cleared out, but there are still a number of homes with a ton of tree debris to be cleared out. It will take awhile to recover from this latest storm.
Say a little prayer for all of us!
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