Surviving the Wind

Yesterday, we were under a high wind warning and a blowing dust warning for the entire day. 7am till 11pm. The night before we took down the cover we put up around the front of the 5th wheel so the wind would not tear it up. So glad we did. During the afternoon, after we had been praying the trees would stay put and not fall on us, Rick went outside to check around the camper to see if there had been any damage. The wind was around 30-40 mph sustained and gusting up to 50-60 mph. It was not a fun day. Rick noticed that Tim was out checking his motor home for a problem with his awnings. Now mind you, Tim had all his slides pulled in because of the wind. Just a few minutes after Rick had come back inside, I looked out the window and could see Tim’s awning blowing above the coach from the other side. I said to Rick we have to go help him. So off we went, and then running back to our camper for tools and ladders and to yell at the neighbors that we needed their help. It took 6 of us to get his window awning down off the coach. The wind had ripped it off of one side and we had to actually cut the awning to get it down so it wouldn’t damage the unit by hitting it every time the wind blew. Then, after we got done with that, his slide awning started to come loose. So we helped him get that one tied down. The wind like to beat us to death as we were out there working on the awnings. The wind continued to rock us all evening. It has not gone away but it did die down some. This morning we got a golf cart and decided to look at the golf course to survey the damage. By the way, yesterday, they closed down the highway that goes by the park because of poor visibility due to blowing dirt. Here is a little of what we saw. The fairway is to the left on number 11. This tree split and it is by the women’s tee on number 12. This is a dog pen that is along one of the fairways. It wasn’t there before yesterday. Hopefully, the dog was not in it when the wind took it for a ride. Notice the top of this tree is lying to the left of it. A lot of branches down all over the place. This bench is upside down. One of the workers out picking up branches off the front 9. They had blowers on a tractor to blow the debris off of the fairways and the greens. This is about the size of most of the branches that are down.

Notice the branch on the water line. Rick took this picture during the height of the storm. We could not believe that it was balanced on the water line with 50 mph winds and it never moved. The next picture is during the storm and the people behind us left their front cover attached. We survived and are so thankful for the prayers that came our way. I have not been this scared in a long time about being in our 5th wheel while the wind was blowing that hard. But then, our rig did survive 70 mph winds last summer in Oklahoma. We just were not in it at the time. Today the wind is still gusting but not to the extent it was yesterday. Still, lots of dust in the air. They keep telling us that it will get warm and we will be wanting some wind to blow to relieve the heat. We are still waiting and wondering if they are pulling our leg.