Monday, September 15, 2008

Windy McBlowsalot Comes To Town

Well, we officially don’t like Ike.

While we didn’t get any rain, we got substantial wind for several hours yesterday. The winds were sustained between 60-75 mph for several hours in the area, according to the local news. Yowza. When I left work tonight, AEP was still reporting a little over 300,000 people without power in Columbus. That's about 55% of their customers. It's a similar story in the Cincinnati and Cleveland areas.

At home, our power went out about 6 times, but they were all momentary interruptions, where the circuit resets itself (if it can) after something contacts the line. On our property, damage was pretty minimal. The only casualties were an ugly trellis, and the top of the car shelter frayed a bit from the winds. I think a little clear tape should take care of that. And I have replacement trellises that I bought earlier this year, so this gives me a reason to finally get rid of the tacky old ones.

We were lucky, there’s large trees down and property damage all over the state. Nala said he and Giga were out yesterday, they witnessed roofs and siding being pulled off buildings, transformers blowing (that was not a Michael Bay critique), just wild crazy stuff.

I don’t know how the shelter made it through…when the wind was getting strong, I decided to take off the end panel, so wind could pass through it rather than turn it into a kite. I also moved the car out of it, and had a utility knife on standby in case I had to slash the fabric to relieve the wind pressure. Amazingly, it held up under the ass kicking that Mother Nature threw down yesterday.

For a more colorful story, check out Naladahc's blog, who has even less love for Ike. Er, he will, once their power is restored!

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