Monday, August 10, 2009

"It felt like the end of the world."



That was Xavi's take. Otherwise I might have called this post "How Qdoba saved 75% of the Goldens" (Remember - click on photos for the full size.)

Just a note to let people know we're okay, power's back on, and though we were around the worst of the storm, Camp Newaygo seems to have missed it for the most part.

Sunday afternoon we headed up to Newaygo to drop off Ysabela for church camp. Our main concern had been for the weather - but just the heat, as she is heat sensitive like Karen. The camp is beautiful, she seems to have a great counselor, and the main building just reopened after a 2.5 million dollar renovation. Air-conditioned, which was reassuring. Ysabela seemed happy and rapidly adjusting.



On the way home, the rain started. By the time we got to Muskegon, it was torrential, and we were looking for a place to eat to just get out of the heavy rain and lightning. We finally settled on Qdoba, and dashed inside. Just as lightning seemed to strike the Meijer parking lot across the street. Impressive stuff! The power was flickering, but the wanting-to-go-home crew of Qdoba made us dinner anyway.

When we left, every path seemed blocked. We finally found a route back to Grand Haven, and then a path back to our house. Block and a half away there was a major tree down holding down power lines, half a block away a silver maple looked like it exploded, and 50 feet from the house the silver maple in front of Paul and Sarah's had fallen over - into our front yard, rather than into the house, thank the Lord.



Power was out for our couple of blocks, but not city wide. The most nerve wracking thing was not being able to get news about whether the weather had been as bad at Camp Newaygo. Our first hour of power was spent assuring ourselves that they skipped the worst of it.



So we're thanking the Lord for sparing us, as the news of the storm was like an account of our route, for watching over Ysabela and the other campers, and blessings over the brave people out making repairs in this weather. Check out some of the news coverage at Wood TV and MLive. Poor people in Holland and parts east got another heavy soaking, 2-4 inches of rain in less than a few hours.


UPDATE: Terry's Tree Service came by and cleared the road last night, and the city came by and cleared about two trucks worth of wood this morning. Leaving just a few large piles on the verge on our property, and the trunk on Paul and Sarah's. It was a big tree! (Sounds like at least 80 years old.)

Very sweet girl came by this morning. Her mother explained that she wanted to go help someone, so they packed up their rakes and started driving. They helped us clear the clearable parts of the yard. I think Natalie's mother was glad to find a reasonable task, and Natalie seemed to get a lot of pleasure from helping. What a nice kid!

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