The Roughest Storm Yet

The end of last year and all throughout this year, has brought quite a few storms across the US. It’s been a chain of them since winter really. This week though has probably been the worst one yet, and there’s more scattered throughout the week. Lets just hope it doesn’t get as bad!

Summer Storm

Monday, around 1:25pm, we were hit by a severe thunderstorm here in TN. My husband and I got caught in it, in the middle of town – as did lots of other people. It wasn’t suppose to hit until 2-5pm that day, but it took everybody by surprise.

There was so much damage just within 15-20 minutes of the storm passing through. We could see it coming across the mountain fast and by the time we were turning around to head back home (ditching our original plans and leaving immediately) – it had already made its way to us. A couple of minutes into the storm we received tornado watch alerts on our phones.

The wind was so strong it had debris covering the roads instantly, red light fixtures plastered backwards, signs and other loose things tumbling about, trees snapping, you name it. The power went out across the area within minutes of the storm.

It was rough trying to get back home, even on the main highway. By the time we reached the road that leads us to the house, we were swerving and dodging so many fallen trees. Just to end up being blocked by a massive tree across the road. Us and a few others had to turn around and find another way.

We took a handful of backroads to try and get home and each one resulted in dodging fallen trees, laid out powerlines, and at the end of each one – another massive tree blocking the way. Luckily, the last one we took had enough of a gap between the ditch and a fallen tree, for us to get through.

We’ve never seen anything like it, except maybe the time a tornado came through our old town a handful of years ago. Even then, it wasn’t nearly as bad as this. We had 70 mph wind gusts, but it was consistent for those 15-20 minutes the storm blew through.

It was nerve wrecking seeing so much damage, and we assumed the power would take a while to be back on. Due to how many powerlines we had seen taken out by trees, down each road we took – not including the ones in town and surrounding areas. There was a ton of massive trees uprooted and others strung out in people’s yards.

We had a neighbor telling us there was even a tree that hit a school bus – everyone was okay thankfully. School had let out early, but the storm hit sooner than expected. The storm did some damage to the school grounds, and also took out a whole cinderblock wall from a manufacturing building.

When we finally made it home we were relieved that there was no real damage. The cover on the chicken’s run had been ripped off by the high winds though. Luckily the tarp underneath a third of the run was still in tact – but with it raining sideways the chickens still got a bit wet. They’re alright though and the cover’s been secured since.

Unfortunately, we weren’t as prepared for this storm as others before it. Our weather apps merely stated that it was just heavy thunderstorms, which we’re use to. Flash flooding being expected, but nothing crazier than that. Luckily we still had extra water on hand, but food was a bit of a challenge.

Where we cook from scratch, we didn’t have many ‘quick’ foods on hand at the time. I did manage to make us some things though. Using candles, a small fryer cage and small pot I even cooked some scrambled eggs and heated up some water for coffee lol Overall, we managed though.

The power was out for 30 hours straight, which resulted in a lot of refrigerated foods gone bad. Our freezer was pretty full, so most things were still frozen thankfully. Aside from food waste, the temps outside got up to 85F (humidity making it hotter), and the house got up to 75F I believe. It wasn’t the worst, but wasn’t pleasant either.

There were 13+ counties without power. The power company had requested outside aid, gaining 16 more crews to help out across the area. I think it was 20,000+ residents total that was affected. Shoutout to the crews doing cleanup and electrical work though, it’s been a long few days.

The winds tore our beautiful sunflowers down.

Thankfully the thunderstorms last night wasn’t as bad, although the wind did get a bit hasty at times. The power flickered for a split second, once or twice, but that was it. Flood warnings popped up on our phones, which was expected with the amount of rainfall we’ve had.

There were several tornados touch down here in Tennessee during the storms, causing severe damage. I know other states have been affected by it as well, it’s just awful altogether. I hope everyone affected recovers quickly from it at least.

I wish I would’ve taken pictures or videos of our drive trying to get home, to capture all the damage we had seen. We were just focused on getting through all the chaos honestly, and eager to get home to make sure everything was alright.

Hope everyone is doing okay, stay safe out there!