Wind Storm of the Century

Monday was Labor Day, and according to Sterling Poulson and all of the other weather forecasters, we should be prepared for BIG WINDS on Tuesday, September 8th.  Well, they were right ! 

I went to work at 7am, and the wind was sure blowing. Shortly after that, we lost power at the house (and in most of Morgan County).   At work (Morgan City), the power was on and off,  and on and off, the computers weren't working at all, and by 9:30 am, we were told to go home for the day because of the power issues (it was off by that point), and the computer servers were in such a mess that it was going to take the entire day to get it fixed.   We watched the wind storm getting worse (from 7 to 9), and all I could think about was what a mess the Property would be. 

 

Rog picked me up at work, and we headed up there...........WHAT A MESS.........

If you can't see the video above - click here

Brandon Walker and Aaron Waldron showed up to help Roger clear the Welch Ditch Dam, which was to the point of overflowing.  It was freezing cold, and the wind was blowing so hard at this point, it was dangerous to be there.   We went home, and hoped the wind would die down so we could assess the damage.

You can't really tell it from this picture, but the grass was a total mass of branches (like in the foreground) - it was so discouraging to think of all of the work that was going to have to be done to clean it up.  

Check out the edge of the bowery...... we are very lucky that when a big tree limb came down, it only grazed the very edge. 

Later in the day, we had some great people show up to help clear the debris.  The Belinski brothers, and then a whole bunch of priests and leaders from Morgan 5th Ward.  Also, Landon and Kacey came up to help, and they were a GREAT Help !!  Thanks guys !!!

This is the biggest tree limb that came down and did the most damage to the bowery, and also took out the flagpole.  

Armed with chainsaws, rakes, tons and tons of trips with the Ranger/trailer filled with branches hauled to the burn pile, and Zac on the tractor, we were able to clean the Property up.  

See those three trees right in the middle?  They will still have to come down at a later date.  You can't see it from this picture, but they are basically just tall stumps at this point.  

I wish I could have gotten pictures of everyone that came to help, but we were all so busy working, and then they were gone..............what would have taken our little family a MONTH to clean up, was basically taken care of in about 3 hours.  It was a Miracle !!

We broke out the candles that night, and ended up being without power until the NEXT night (Wednesday) about 5:30 pm.  All in all were were without power for just about 36 hours.  We had help from friends and co-workers with generators to keep Mom and Dad's and Zac and CJ's fridges and freezers going, and we ended up taking our contents (of fridge and freezer) to Carol Brooks garage fridge/freezer.  So grateful for people who were willing to help us out.  

The next day dawned much calmer, and cooler, with the first snow of the season on the mountain tops to the West.   Morgan sustained a great deal of damage to hundreds of trees which were uprooted and tipped over.  Many buildings had damage, and sheds and barns were destroyed. It was surely the wind storm of the century.  Basically hurricane winds, without the rain.  2020 is going down in the books for sure.....Covid 19, Murder Hornets, Riots, Fires, Hurricane winds in Utah..............   I wonder what will be next?  

I won't worry - things will be okay.  I know who to rely on.  Everything will work out if we TRUST IN GOD AND OUR SAVIOR !!