We lived through the Bountiful Hurricane

We are lucky like that.  While tending Briggy and Christian in Bountiful while the rest of Mike's family was vacationing, the Big Wind blew in.  The sound was one of the scariest parts, as it screamed through the night till noon the next day.  Of course as the trees fell, the power lines went with them.  It was cold, dark, and a little un-nerving.  Mike's home had minimal damage while some of his close neighbors had some major problems so we felt very blessed. 

This is the big tree across the creek from Mike that became uprooted and fell into another huge tree, breaking off limbs and branches.

Mike's deck iron railing was crunched by a branch from the uprooted tree.

His neighbors were not so lucky. Many trees fell on homes . . .

. . . or cars.

This roof is not covered with snow.  It is white where the shingles were torn off by the

ferocious winds.  Some gusts were over 100 mph.

Notice the downed power pole behind the home.  Some homes

received extensive fire damage from this kind of scary scenerio.

It took some high winds to snap this mature pine. Thousands of trees were lost in the area. 

One golf course alone lost 500 big trees!

Just a little peek at some of the devasation and the power of Mother Nature . . .

Another old friend bites the dust.  

Dangerous clean-up work. The guy in brown has a chain saw.  We watched he and his crew put two trees right in the creek, narrowly missing our deck and another deck further down.

They had to have a man attach a chain and pull

both trees down with a big backhoe.

I was so nervous for this guy as he climbed two trees we knew

were just about to fall.

Bountiful: City of Beautiful Trees and Gardens, is mourning the loss of many of its mature beautiful trees.  But from what I could see, most people were very "lucky" that the trees fell away from homes and property. 

What did I learn from this storm?  People are precious and property can be replaced.  Home insurance is a blessing. Be prepared with flashlights, candles, warm blankets, and some stuff to eat without having to be cooked.  Try to have a charged phone and ipod ready to go.  It is also nice to have relatives out of the storm's line to "visit" while the power is off. 

I also learned that the LDS Church is amazingly organized.  The priesthood guys were out contacting neighbors to check on them. As soon as the storm died down, the ward was out in numbers to clean up the mess.  It was awesome.  They even canceled church meeting so they could get everything off the roads before the next snowstorm hit Sunday night.

I am sorry I could not make these last paragraphs un-centered, but that is the way of the blog.