The "Lancaster Storm Hits Hard" Story

It was an ordinary day.  No sooner finished yesterday's story about Hurricane Irma heading towards the Caribbean than a local violent thunderstorm/tornado warning was posted on my TV screen.  

Flower pots blown over and flowers destroyed.

Warnings telling me to seek shelter in the basement or lowest floor of my home.  Stay away from windows and make sure my family and pets are safe.  I had just hit the "enter" key on my keyboard to finish my story about Hurricane Irma when I heard it.  A crack that might have been a lightening strike on the hill about 50 feet behind my home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  Wasn't sure what it was at the time, but wasn't going to chance walking out the back door to check since the hail was close to the size of large cat's eye marbles.  

Carol's lilies were destroyed and blown into our pond.

When the rain and wind died down Carol and I looked out the back door and found just about every one of her very large and heavy flower pots had been toppled.  The entire planting of night-blooming day lilies was history as they had been blown into the pond.  Shortly the rain ceased and we ventured out to find a large branch of one of our walnut tree, about 30 feet long, had fallen to the ground while another shorter branch had fallen onto our ceramic garden sculpture and had knocked that over.  

One-half of one of the pine trees fell into my neighbor's
flower bed and across her driveway.

After further examination, Carol yelled to me, "You may want to come up here and look at this."  Wasn't really in the mood with all the other damage, but headed to the far south side of our property where we have five rather large pine trees along the edge of our property.  Seems that one must have taken a lightening strike, hence the loud crack, and had toppled across our neighbors beautiful flower bed and her driveway.  

Branches also fell from the grouping
of English Walnut trees that stand
in a grove on a hill above our home.

The tree is at least 40 feet in height and split at the base like someone chopped it in half.  One half still stood while the other half fell.  Just what I needed to find since I am struggling once again with my surgically repaired back.  Instantly knew there was no way I could handle the job and made a quick call to a former student who fertilizes my lawn in the sumer months.  We have lived at our "Beach House" for over 20 years now, but have never experienced the destruction that this storm produced.  But, in the whole realm of things, and thinking about our friends who live in Sint Maarten/St. Martin and in the direct path of one of the biggest Atlantic Basin hurricanes in history, this was a piece of cake, as the saying goes.  My family will help me with the clean-up and all will be fine once again in a very few days.  Just hoping that will be the case in the islands after the hurricane passes, but realizing that just isn't going to happen.  You think "Global Warming" has anything to do with all these weather patterns and historic storms?  Duh!!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of ordinary guy.