Blowing in the Wind...Vento!

A few weeks ago we had a severe storm in our region. It was about 2 am on a Monday morning (Sunday night). I woke up at 1:58 am because I was warm. I realized my ceiling fan in my bedroom went out.

"Great," I thought. " I lost power".

Then I heard this really fierce wind get stronger and stronger. My windows in my room started to shake very violently and I thought the glass would break and come blowing through my bedroom. I darted up out of bed, shut my bedroom door behind me and all the other bedroom doors in the house. Then I ran into my innermost bathroom and hid for 30 minutes. I tried to call some of the other ex-pats, but the cell phone service was not working well and after 20 minutes I couldn't make any calls.

I was sincerely frightened and the wind was blowing so hard and raining with such force. I was afraid water would come pouring through the ceiling or the roof would blow off. Thankfully, none of that happened. Finally, the wind died down around 4:30 am and I went to sleep.

I woke up the next morning to a town completely disorganized, littered with broken trees, roof tiles, pieces of sheet metal and telephone poles on the ground. I had no power, no cell phone service and it was raining. So, I could not contact anyone. Once it stopped raining, I walked over to the language school and saw a lot of damage to the city.

I was able to reach the other ex-pats and everyone was safe and no damage to their homes. I found out later many people had their roofs blown partially off and a lot of water damage.

I was without power for 3 days, internet for 3 days and no water for 2 days. I had several cold showers (while I still had water) and ate and cooked by candlelight for 2 nights. It was kind of romantic to dine that way, but became annoying after the first night.  Finally, I got city services restored and was EXTREMELY thankful and IMPRESSED how quickly a small city in the countryside was able to restore these necessities.

Here are the pictures of the storm damage. It was really unbelievable. I found out later the speed was 140 km/h or about 90 mph winds!!!!

Abraco,
Mollie

This is around the corner from my house. Telephone/electric wires on the ground.

Part of a tree that fell onto a utility pole and into my neighbor's yard. 

 

Another picture of the same tree in his yard. 

You can see the balcony (brick) of the top level fell to the ground from the force of the wind. 

Trees in the road

The town center. Trees were split in two. 

This is at work. It used to have the company logo and say "John Deere", but it got blown off. It was on both sides of the tower and blew off. 

The grain mill across the street from John Deere. There were also utility poles made of concrete that came crashing to the ground. It was impassable for  2 days.