Thunder, lightning and wind - oh my!

What a crazy night/early morning we had in North Texas! The tornado sirens went off north of us - near my parents, but the weather was still pretty wild in Fort Worth. We lost power for a while, but not as bad as areas in Dallas. We woke up at 3:00 a.m. because of the loud thunder cracks and the bright lightning. Nate looked out the bedroom window during the storm and could only see sheets of rain coming down sideways. Riley was really nervous and shaking; she slept on the bed in between our legs most of the night.

We didn't hear our tree over our garage crack, but it certainly did crack. I don't think there is any structural damage, and we've called a tree guy to come take it down today. After looking at the tree more closely, it seems that maybe that branch was near rotting anyway. So, if there was one branch that "had" to go, this one was it. Nate is actually glad that it's gone. Now our cypress will have room to grow. All in all, not too bad. There are some other small branches that were damaged too and will need to be removed.

Thank goodness we didn't have the tree across the street! If that would have happened to ours, we would have been in a world of hurt. I'm amazed that tree fell the way it did. It's in the vacant lot that a neighbor on our side of the street owns and uses as a vegetable garden/fruit orchard. It doesn't look like the fence was damaged, but the poor tree is gone. It's so sad to see all the broken trees everywhere. As we were driving to work this morning, we saw a lot of damage in Haltom City and Hurst/Bedford. Those cities are out in the open, and Haltom City bore the brunt of tornado damage last year at this time. Roofs are gone or peeled back, trees are down, even a metal billboard was bent to the ground. I'm amazed at the power of the wind. Nate's boss in Colleyville (north of Fort Worth) says his neighborhood looks like a war zone. Another guy we work with lives in Southlake; some of his ceramic roof tiles were blown off and his trampoline is on his neighbor's roof, causing damage.

I'm still continually amazed by the weather we get in Texas, especially in the spring. Being a New Mexico resident most of my life certainly didn't prepare me for this!