OT-- The Colorado Hurricane

On Thu, 07 Apr 2005 21:29:04 -0600, CATherine
wrote:

Tuesday in Colorado, a powerful storm blew through. Rain, snow and
extremely strong winds. They said gusts of 60mph near the mountains
and the cities. But out on the prairie, where there is not much to
slow the wind down, I do believe the wind was a lot stronger.

It was hard to drive with the wind hitting the side of the car. By the
time I got to work, I was tired from my deathgrip on the steering
wheel. I opened the door to get out and the wind slammed the door on
my foot! It was like that all day. By the time I was done seeing
clients, I was tireder from fighting the wind than I was from the
work.

As i drove home across the prairie, I noticed damages from the wind.
Signs, storage sheds and even a portapotty at a construction site were
rolling in the wind. But I didn't have too much attention for seeing
things like that as I was trying to keep the car on the road.

Once i got home, I just relaxed for a moment before opening the door.
I was so glad the driver's door was on the lee side of the wind. Then
Jeff came out to escort me to the house. He often does, knowing I am
tired.

He had bad news for me. No electricity. Well, that happens some times
in the country. But I said it should come back on after awhile. He
said, No. Then he turned me around and said look up the hill behind
the house. So what do I see? Nothing. What should I see? Poles with
the electric wires.

The wind had hit the poles with hurricane force and snapped them like
matchsticks. At 10:30 in the morning. Jeff had called the power
company. They said they had so many poles down that they had borrowed
crews from other power companies. And in many places the wires had
snapped connections and were on the ground shorting out.

We were luckier than many people out here. We live in a very old place
with a real well; not just a pipe in the ground. My son set up a block
and tackle and lowered a bucket in the well so we could have water. We
have a wood stove so we could stay warm and cook. And we lit a lot of
candles. It was kind of like camping. But I sure missed my computer.

I am glad we have the power back on. We were out for about 30 hours.
They got our six poles replaced late last night. But there are still a
lot of broken poles to replace. I see trailers with loads of creosoted
poles sitting at sites of downed poles, waiting their turn.

A friend of mine lost her brand new roof. Now her insurance won't pay
for another one.

Last week I was snowed in for two days with a heavy wet snow. The next
few days was 70 degrees. Then this storm hit us. Now it is 70 again.
This sure is crazy weather for April. I want ot see some flowers. The
redbuds and apple tree should be blooming. At least I am seeing
daffodils in the city where the weather is a bit warmer than the
country.

Oh, CATherine, that's scary! Glad you are okay, and that you got the
power back.

Ginger-lyn

Home Pages:
http://www.spiritrealm.com/summer/
http://www.angelfire.com/folk/glsummer (homepage & cats)
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb....mmer/index.htm (genealogy)
http://www.i-love-cats.com/meow/glsummer/ (The Violence Against
Animals in Movies Website)

CATherine wrote:
Tuesday in Colorado, a powerful storm blew through. Rain, snow and
extremely strong winds. They said gusts of 60mph near the mountains
and the cities. But out on the prairie, where there is not much to
slow the wind down, I do believe the wind was a lot stronger.

YIKES! Sounds scary! I guess this is the time of year for violent storms
for those of us not on the coastal areas. We had a nasty hail storm a
couple of weeks ago that caused over 100 million dollars worth of
damage. It was so nasty it killed hundreds of birds all over the city.
Purrs to you!

--
Victor M. Martinez
Owned and operated by the Fantastic Seven (TM)
Send your spam he
Email me he

CATherine wrote:
Tuesday in Colorado, a powerful storm blew through.

snip

Wow - take care! That sounds scary!

-L.

CATherine wrote:

Tuesday in Colorado, a powerful storm blew through.

How terrible, Catherine! I'm so glad to read that you're all alright.
Also very glad that Jeff is there to help you.

--
Marina, Frank, Nikki, and introducing: Mere!
marina (dot) kurten (at) pp (dot) inet (dot) fi
Pics at http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/frankiennikki/
and http://community.webshots.com/user/frankiennikki

Hopitus wrote:

I remember the fun we had @ that tourist
place between Sac. & Placerville
w/all the wierd memorabilia etc. Was it called "Sam's"
or somethng like that?


Sam's Club, IIRC. We loved it too when we were living up there. It had
a general store, arcades, a movie memorabilia and prop museum, three
different types of restaurants, and more. It was so fun to visit and
one could kill a whole day there without being bored.

Pam S.

Uh, this is a little irreverent, Victor, but did the kids then
have a big feast on the fallen birds? Or do they insist on
live prey? Personally, it sounds like the answer to a cat's
prayer to Bast......manna from heaven.

"Victor Martinez" wrote in message
...
CATherine wrote:
Tuesday in Colorado, a powerful storm blew through. Rain, snow and
extremely strong winds. They said gusts of 60mph near the mountains
and the cities. But out on the prairie, where there is not much to
slow the wind down, I do believe the wind was a lot stronger.

YIKES! Sounds scary! I guess this is the time of year for violent storms
for those of us not on the coastal areas. We had a nasty hail storm a
couple of weeks ago that caused over 100 million dollars worth of damage.
It was so nasty it killed hundreds of birds all over the city.
Purrs to you!

--
Victor M. Martinez
Owned and operated by the Fantastic Seven (TM)
Send your spam he
Email me he

I am one who was brought up in s. FL, the land of killer
'canes, wind and rain storms. The rain storms here are so
lame - no thunder to speak of, and I ain't seen lightning
yet, though never say never.
What I really meant with that statement was freedom from the %*IA^*(^A)($%
snow, ice, and other winter
crap that wafts down on us here regularly. LOL - one
person's "winter wonderland" is another's PITA if you
didn't grow up with it and every occurrence is a new
challenge in dealing w/it.
My ignorance of these matters is a source of never-ending amusement to my
neighbors, and sometimes to
my relatives here. Often I think, but never say, "well, I'd
like to plunk *you* down in the middle of a Class 5 'cane - common when I
was a child - and see how funny
that would be"....hee hee.


"Monique Y. Mudama" wrote in message
...
On 2005-04-08, Hopitus penned:
....Hopitus will be happy as h*** when
all these weather threats and storms quit for the summer.

Um, you're joking, right?

Last summer, anyway, there were afternoon storms almost every day.
Some were so intense that they flooded our parking lot. I had to walk
through 3 and 4 inch deep lakes to get to my car.

Morning: bright and sunny. Noon: bright and sunny. 3-4pm: sky is
falling; cancel all outdoor plans for the evening. 5pm: bright and
sunny, not a cloud in the sky.

Welcome to Colorado!

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca

Hopitus wrote:
Uh, this is a little irreverent, Victor, but did the kids then
have a big feast on the fallen birds? Or do they insist on

I'm sure a bunch of cats did, but mine did not partake of the banquet....

live prey? Personally, it sounds like the answer to a cat's
prayer to Bast......manna from heaven.

No kidding. Bad news for the birdies though...

--
Victor M. Martinez
Owned and operated by the Fantastic Seven (TM)
Send your spam he
Email me he

CATherine wrote:
Tuesday in Colorado, a powerful storm blew through. Rain, snow and
extremely strong winds. They said gusts of 60mph near the mountains
and the cities. But out on the prairie, where there is not much to
slow the wind down, I do believe the wind was a lot stronger.

(snippage)

Yikes! Now that's some powerful wind! I'm glad you're safe and got your
power back. You were very lucky to be without it only 30 hours considering
the damage.

Several years back, I think it was in June, the Memphis area was similarly
hit. I'd been at work about 30 minutes. It was about 7:15 AM when I looked
up from my desk and it was literally black as midnight outside. I exclaimed
to no one in particular "Oh crap!" A co-worker sitting one aisle over whose
desk faced away from the window said, "What's wrong, Jill?" Look out the
window! I heard her say, "Oh crap!" The storm hit almost simultaneously
and the wind was so strong (they estimated 60-70 MPH as well) the trees on
those grass "islands" in the parking lot were literally horizontal with the
ground. Then, of course, the electricity went out. My employer had a
generator (they took up 3 of the 5 floors in the building). It powered
everything EXCEPT air conditioning (aside from the server room). As the
morning progressed it got warmer and warmer in the office. We had to pour
water from coffee pots to flush the toilets... which (it turned out) didn't
work for very long. Turned out some of the water pumping stations had been
knocked offline as well and the stench became unbearable.

My apartment is surrounded by trees and I was more concerned about finding
out if it was still there. The phones were out at the apartment office.
They finally told us all to go home close to noon. My apartment was safe,
but my power was off for 5 days. My phone also didn't work, nor did any of
the pay phones in the vicinity. I didn't have a cell phone at the time. So
I had to drive to work every day to find out if they were "open". They
weren't. But the good thing about that was the generators still powered the
ice machines in the breakrooms. I loaded up bags of ice to take back for my
big cooler.

You mentioned it was like "camping out"; I became very adept at cooking on
my grill - breakfast (bacon, then eggs cooked in the bacon drippings), a pan
of cornbread, even a pot of jambalaya! Thank goodness for cast iron
cookware

Glad you're safe. Purrs to everyone in the area.

Jill

Lots of purrs and best wishes for you and anyone else affected,
--
Polonca & Soncek

"CATherine" wrote in message
...
Tuesday in Colorado, a powerful storm blew through. Rain, snow and
extremely strong winds. They said gusts of 60mph near the mountains
and the cities. But out on the prairie, where there is not much to
slow the wind down, I do believe the wind was a lot stronger.
snip