mattbcl
27th June 2011, 06:13 PM
They suck. If you need proof, check this out:
The image in this story is just one of many that are now burned into my mind. (http://www.wgem.com/Global/story.asp?S=14983978)
This storm woke me up at about 1 am last night. I stood in my house, as alone as I've ever felt, staring out the window and watching it rain and hail sideways. Wind whipped everything in view, and there wasn't that much of a view. Power cables jangled to and fro. I saw a couple of trees go down. I kept waiting for my landlord, who lives downstairs, to call me and invite me to hide in his basement with him, but the call never came - he and his girlfriend were in the Ozarks.
Since I work for a cleaning company, I had to leave home early. My street was almost entirely occluded by fallen trees - there was space enough on one side of the street for a single car to squeeze through. When I glanced back at my house, I don't recall seeing anything really noteworthy, other than a tree that had fallen off to one side.
When I got home today, I saw that a branch about as big around as I am is resting against the overhang of my porch. My yard is no longer a yard, but a tree exhibit, demonstrating all of the various sizes of branches and limbs, the insides, the outsides, and everything in between. Miraculously, I still have power. 25,000 residents of my city (population 42,000) do not.
When my landlord and his girlfriend pulled up, I was standing there gaping at the massive branch, which I could swear had not been there when I left this morning. He hunkered down, grabbed a chainsaw, and got to work right away, without so much as giving me a cross look or a word of discouragement. His girlfriend, on the other hand, had some very not-nice words for me. Her exact words were, "Matt, are you fucking BLIND?! How could you not SEE that? I mean seriously, are you fucking BLIND?!"
Notably, she did apologize to me a few minutes later, but confrontations like that really and truly bother me. I certainly never meant to ignore damage to the place I'm renting and living in - I want my landlord to know I care. I offered to help in any way I could, but he just shrugged and said, "Nah, don't worry about it, I got it taken care of. Just as long as you're okay and your place is fine."
People in various neighborhoods around town have been pitching in to help each other. In some other neighborhoods, though, some people are just sticking to themselves. It's tough in either category. I did my best to help a local granny whose insurance won't cover the removal of torrential waters in her basement with at least getting some branches away from her house and to the lawn, where local crews will grind them and take them away.
Has anybody else here been subjected to the sort of conditions, be they weather or interpersonal, which I've described here? What do you do? What WOULD you do?
Please discuss.
The image in this story is just one of many that are now burned into my mind. (http://www.wgem.com/Global/story.asp?S=14983978)
This storm woke me up at about 1 am last night. I stood in my house, as alone as I've ever felt, staring out the window and watching it rain and hail sideways. Wind whipped everything in view, and there wasn't that much of a view. Power cables jangled to and fro. I saw a couple of trees go down. I kept waiting for my landlord, who lives downstairs, to call me and invite me to hide in his basement with him, but the call never came - he and his girlfriend were in the Ozarks.
Since I work for a cleaning company, I had to leave home early. My street was almost entirely occluded by fallen trees - there was space enough on one side of the street for a single car to squeeze through. When I glanced back at my house, I don't recall seeing anything really noteworthy, other than a tree that had fallen off to one side.
When I got home today, I saw that a branch about as big around as I am is resting against the overhang of my porch. My yard is no longer a yard, but a tree exhibit, demonstrating all of the various sizes of branches and limbs, the insides, the outsides, and everything in between. Miraculously, I still have power. 25,000 residents of my city (population 42,000) do not.
When my landlord and his girlfriend pulled up, I was standing there gaping at the massive branch, which I could swear had not been there when I left this morning. He hunkered down, grabbed a chainsaw, and got to work right away, without so much as giving me a cross look or a word of discouragement. His girlfriend, on the other hand, had some very not-nice words for me. Her exact words were, "Matt, are you fucking BLIND?! How could you not SEE that? I mean seriously, are you fucking BLIND?!"
Notably, she did apologize to me a few minutes later, but confrontations like that really and truly bother me. I certainly never meant to ignore damage to the place I'm renting and living in - I want my landlord to know I care. I offered to help in any way I could, but he just shrugged and said, "Nah, don't worry about it, I got it taken care of. Just as long as you're okay and your place is fine."
People in various neighborhoods around town have been pitching in to help each other. In some other neighborhoods, though, some people are just sticking to themselves. It's tough in either category. I did my best to help a local granny whose insurance won't cover the removal of torrential waters in her basement with at least getting some branches away from her house and to the lawn, where local crews will grind them and take them away.
Has anybody else here been subjected to the sort of conditions, be they weather or interpersonal, which I've described here? What do you do? What WOULD you do?
Please discuss.