You don't need a weather vane...

We had no electricity last evening, and into the night. The power went out following one of the worst storms I have ever witnessed. I was seriously frightened. I was in my car, in fact on my way to the grocery store to pick up something. The sky ahead of me got darker and darker, and said to myself "shit I am driving right into it."

(I found the NWS bulletin from yesterday afternoon!

AT 517 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM CAPABLE OF PRODUCING DESTRUCTIVE WINDS IN EXCESS OF 70 MPH. THIS STORM WAS LOCATED 8 MILES WEST OF MEDWAY... OR ABOUT NEAR MILFORD...AND MOVING EAST AT 40 MPH. * THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WILL BE NEAR... MEDWAY...FRANKLIN...WRENTHAM AND MILLIS BY 530 PM EDT NORFOLK AND MEDFIELD BY 535 PM EDT WALPOLE AND NORWOOD BY 540 PM EDT SHARON BY 545 PM EDT

THIS IS A DANGEROUS STORM. IF YOU ARE IN ITS PATH...PREPARE IMMEDIATELY FOR DAMAGING WINDS...DESTRUCTIVE HAIL...AND DEADLY CLOUD TO GROUND LIGHTNING. PEOPLE OUTSIDE SHOULD MOVE TO A SHELTER... PREFERABLY INSIDE A STRONG BUILDING BUT AWAY FROM WINDOWS.

THIS STORM HAS A HISTORY OF PRODUCING WIDESPREAD WIND DAMAGE. THIS IS AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS SITUATION. SEEK SHELTER NOW INSIDE A STURDY STRUCTURE AND STAY AWAY FROM WINDOWS! )

It was bad. I pulled into the parking lot and just sat there in my car, because there wasn't much else I could do-it was in full throws. From there, I had quite the view of bolts of lightning striking the area. The pavement was covered with a good 3 inches of water, and the wind blew with such force the top of the flood looked like snow in a blizzard. Grocery carts went across the parking lot on their own volition, resembling people frantically searching for cover, until they struck cars or each other and tipped over. Then the power went out in the shopping center.

I watched all this thinking I had never seen such weather, when suddenly the car with hit with such a force of rain and wind I couldn't see out my windows. As soon as I could see again, and the sky began to look not quite as dark, I decided I was getting the hell home. I couldn't believe was I saw as I left the parking lot and down the main road- trees and utility lines down. I followed another car under one, and as I did it thought, "How stupid, this could be a power line!"

I worried about our neighborhood, because we were hit very badly by a similar, even more powerful microburst a few years ago. My fears were magnified when I saw all the debris on the road, and was turned away by a police car blocking a fallen tree. The next road I tried to take over to my house was blocked as well. It was terrible! I then took another road that leads to the other side of town that I can access my neighborhood from, and a police car was there as well!

I eventually navigated myself home. My immediate neighbors were all ok. We were lucky to only have part of tree fall into the pool, but only damaging the railing. It very large though, and we'll need a tree service to get it down, along with another tree top that broke and is hanging over my neighbor's yard. Someone around the block from us had a huge pine tree land along the house length-wise, and crush the roof it. Luckily no one was home at the time.

Inside, the sideways rain had come in the house on the north and west, soaking beds and a coffee table in the center of my living room. What's funny is the power didn't go out until well after the storm had passed. The hubby, kids and I took a walk around the block in the dusk, then he and I played scrabble on the deck by candlelight. He won. Bastard!