Edge of a hurricane at Hopkinsville, KY
At Hopkinsville, KY, we were supposed to be a bit outside of Ike's path, according to a weather map I saw on Saturday night. That map underestimated the situation. Satellite photos, taken as Ike passed over the region Sunday morning, show a wide band of hurricane-influenced weather.We had some very strong wind here. The Kentucky New Era reports wind gusts up to 64 mph.
I slept late rather than going to church Sunday morning, because I had to work until midnight on Sunday night. It wasn't very restful sleep. I woke again and again to the wind's howl as it ripped through the trees. About 10:00 a.m., every other sound in the house halted abruptly, signaling a power failure. I was sorry that I hadn't at least made a pot of coffee.
When Dennis got home from church, he said that the streets in Hopkinsville and the roads on the way home were full of tree limbs, small and large. He wasn't surprised about the power outage because he had stopped to talk to our neighbor down the road, who had a large tree lying across electric lines in his front yard.
When I left for work, the electricity was still out, but the worst of the wind had passed. Several other employees had stories of trees down and power out. One lady said that Madisonville, a town about 35 miles north of Hopkinsville, looked like a tornado had gone through it.
The electricity was back on when I got home late that night. A lot of branches, most of them already dead, are scattered around the yard. None of them fell on anything important. All of our trees managed to hang on and stay in the ground. The wind ripped out the hinges of one door on the old bathroom vanity which is still sitting on the carport. Now I'll have to fix it before anyone will want it from Freecycle.
We were fortunate that we didn't suffer any severe damage. Our worst complaint is that, with all that wind, we didn't get one drop of rain!
Kentucky New Era report of the wind storm
National Weather Service report from Paducah
4 comments:
I'm glad you were all alright--I kept hoping throughout your post that you had gotten your cup of coffee. Thanks for keeping me up to date on Hoptown.
Beth, I had a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast since we couldn't open the fridge. Fortunately the water still works when the power's out, though, so I got a shower to help me wake up. I couldn't curl my hair, though.
G, I'm glad you didn't have any Ike damage. I'm paw-prayin' fur all the people and animals who have suffered this hurricane season.
Dog-ma told me people without electical power and/or with ruined inside tel line wiring could have tel service if they found an old Trimline or Princess phone and plugged it into intact jack in tel service box on outside house wall.
Makes doggone good sense, I think.
That's very good advice about the telephone. I will remember that.
We were very fortunate that we didn't have any damage to speak of. A lot of trees came down across our county, and there was wind damage to roofs, etc.
An article in yesterday's Courier Journal (Louisville newspaper) said that 60 out of 120 counties in Kentucky reported storm damage and 500,000 people were left without electricity.
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