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John Ross Meets Ike
Editor's Note: Our friend, John Ross, had a harrowing experience. He sat on his front porch early Sunday morning and watched big trees fall across his front yard, blocking the main road. John’s disability prevents him from moving fast and had one of those trees come down on the porch, he would have been seriously injured or worse.
 
John's a bona fide expert on Civil War cannons. He could tell you which would blow the heck out of the big trees that filled his yard.

Here's his story in his own words: 



Sunday morning just after the electric power went off I could hear the wind building up.  So I got a chair and sat on the front porch to watch the storm. Very, very little rain came. Maybe a tenth of an inch. What little rain was there was flying horizontally and heading north.   
 
  But the wind! It was from the south at 25 to 35 mph but gusts hit 60 mph. And the wind storm must have lasted over an hour. I could hear the cracking of breaking branches every minute or two. A series of cracks coming rapidly one after another was the signal that yet another tree was going down.  Remember as a kid putting a bowl of Rice Krispies next to your ear after pouring the milk in?  Snap, crackle, pop! 
 I saw the big twin trunk tree of my next door neighbor split in half and fall down on the power lines in front of my house.  The two utility poles bent inwards but the lines held the tree several feet off the ground.  One and a half lanes of Hwy 51 were blocked by the branches. I was very glad the power was off! After a few hours the work crews lifted the tree off of the undamaged power lines and thoughtfully bulldozed it over onto my sidewalk.  Guess what?  I get to have it cut up and removed.     
I also watched a pine tree beside my drive way just gradually begin to lean north until it was halfway over. It stayed that way for a few minutes. Then the pine tree just seemed to mutter to itself, "Ah, the heck with it." and it slowly and gently eased itself over to rest on the slope of the bank. 

By this time I felt much the same way as that poor pine tree.  
 
 
The top couple of feet of my brick chimney were also blown down.  Plus dozens of tree limbs.   I had no electric power for 33 hours and lost everything in my fridge & freezer.
My half rotted down garage with the huge hole in the roof came through the windstorm untouched.  I regard it as just more proof that the Good Lord has a sense of humor.     

That Sunday night without electricity the houses and the tangled tree limbs in front of my home were coal black silhouettes against the light from a pearlescent full moon in a soft gray hazy sky without stars. 

A beautiful and peaceful end for a turbulent day.     
 
John


Below - A sea of green branches covered North Washington Street in front of John's house.

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