Trees and the August 9 Storm

If you’re from Western New York you most likely remember the storm of August 9, 2009. It blew through here (quite literally) in the evening, dumping an incredible amount of rain and producing a spectacular light and sound show. If you live in Gowanda or Silver Creek, you will remember this storm for a long, long time. Many people in those areas were flooded out, and, in Gowanda, a wall of mud joined the water. The town was closed to traffic for a week, there was so much to clean up.

I had the great fortune to be driving home from an art show that evening. It was one of my scariest drives ever, even including white-knuckle drives on ice and in blizzards. I literally stayed with the storm the whole way as it drifted from north to south across Erie County. The constant flashing made it seem like daylight much of the time. The thunder was so close, so deep and powerful, it felt like I was inside a giant subwoofer. The rain was coming down so hard, I had my wipers on high and still, they often couldn’t keep up. And even though I was naturally going slow, a couple of times my tires hydroplaned and I was surprised when I didn’t slide right off the road.

Due to flooding roads were being closed right behind me. The north and west accesses to my road were both closed. I’m lucky I made it home. The sense of relief I felt when pulling into my driveway was indescribable, let’s just say I was mighty thankful I had made it home. But it wasn’t over yet.

The power was out. I grabbed my headlamp that I keep right by the door for just such emergencies and made my way into a pitch black house. Great, with the power out I wouldn’t be able to shower (I have a well) and I was a sweaty mess, so I poured myself a glass of wine and sat by the windows watching the light show continue outside. Suddenly, my skin prickled and I had the eerie sensation of what it must be like to stick your fingers into an electrical outlet. The next moment, thunder and lightning crashed and flashed simultaneously and I knew it had hit just outside - I swore I saw it peeking in the window at the other end of the room looking at me. Weird description I know, but that’s just what it felt like.

I went outside to look for damage and didn’t find any. But there was damage. It fried my telephone line (I was without my phone for five days, the repair crews were so busy), zapped the motion detector on the outside light, cooked my stereo and when the power came back on and I turned on the computer, it acted like it was brand new – it was telling me to activate Windows. But I am alive and undamaged (as far as I can tell, please do let me know if I am acting a little strange) and for that, I am, once again, thankful.

Now, you’re probably wondering why the word ‘Trees’ is in the title. I’ll get to that in the next post…