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Posted by: Lee Shake (leeshake@novagate.com) on 6/02/1998@08:08hrs:
In Reply to: Re: Wind Rose...At Last!!!! posted by: CharlieJ on 5/30/1998@20:34hrs:
Sorry Charlie,
As you may know by now, we had a H*ll of a WIND storm here on Thursday night. I lost the top 20 feet of a 55' tall Box Elder tree that plummeted into my yard and just missed my shed and the neighbor's garage, burying the stump end of the branch 2 1/2 feet into my lawn. Was most of the day on friday sawing it up and stacking it. Saturday we loaded it into a truck and carted it off and then I mowed the lawn, mulching the little twigs and leaves that were left. By sundown on Saturday, we looked pristine again except there is this broken trunk up in the top of that tree.
At 5:10am Sunday morning, we got hit with an even bigger storm! Winds were clocked at 130 MPH as they went through. THIS TIME, my yard was spared except for more little twigs and branch ends, but the power was out and about five blocks north of me, streets were completely blocked by smashed trees and power was out in most of the county. The Down-Town section of Grand Haven and most of the adjourning village of Spring Lake looked like a war zone! A local Condo didn't just sustain damage, it completely collapsed. It looked like it'd gone through a shreader machine! God must have had hundreds of Guardian Angels in this area that night. 15 people were trapped in that condo and not one serious injury! Whole blocks of streets absolutely filled with smashed trees! Houses with giant 100 yr old oaks and maples leaning against them or blocking both the front and rear entrances. Roofs blown off! Gas lines broken open by trees that blew over with their roots torn out of the ground that never ignited! Power lines strewn all over like spegetti and no fires! No one hurt in cars, no one killed, 21 million dollars worth of damage and only 15 people treated at the local hospital for minor injuries. Later on Sunday, under a blue quiet sky, a power company repairman was electricuted when he walked into a downed power line in tall grass. Campers and motorhomes bowled over and stacked up like childrens blocks at the local state park and no one seriousely injured! It's unbelievable the amount of damage and the scarcity of injuries! Had that storm hit during the day, it would have been a slaughter.
I got power back about 9:00pm Sunday night, no further damage to my own trees or house, and NOVAGATE.COM (my I.S.P.) was powered up sometime on Monday, the 1st of June. Most of Grand Haven and Spring Lake are still dark and portions brobably still will be until Thursday or Friday. So we are VERY fortunate, indeed.
Yup, like you, I thought of a Compass Rose, but I've never heard of the term Wind Rose before, and I didn't make the connection, either.