We no like IKE

Beth posted this recently to her own blog ... so i'm stealing it to use for my own.

Hurricane Ike found a way to reach the Ohio Valley on Sunday afternoon. Let me begin by saying we are in no place to complain here in Ohio. The damage to Texas and the Gulf Coast is unreal. I believe we all know how scary the threat of hurricane season is due to New Orleans and Katrina. With that said, I was not prepared that 60 mile an hour plus winds could reach us in Ohio by Sunday at 2:30 pm! The damage that these winds created has absolutely shocked me. There were trees falling over everywhere, hundreds of thousands were and still remain without power, and the damage to homes has been costly. All of this and not a single drop of rain fell!Megan and I happened to be shopping when the winds began picking up speed. By the time we got home there were power lines and trees down everywhere. We stopped at the gas station and a man had just run across the street to rescue his dogs as a large tree had just crushed his car in the driveway and threatened to fall onto his house. As we were getting closer to our house I had a gut feeling that one of our trees had fallen (as they are very big and old trees). As we turned onto our street I quickly saw that my instinct was correct and part of our tree had broken off. Thankfully the house and car were not hit. Here is a picture:
Unfortunatley this was not the end of our tree falling adventure. About 45 minutes after returning home, I am standing upstairs looking out our picture glass window when I hear a booming crack and see the rest of the tree coming toward the house! After screaming and running downstairs to get Megan, we went outside to look at the damage. Again, we were very lukcy. There was minimal damage considering the amount of tree that fell onto the house, and it didn't come through the glass window! Here is stage two of the tree falling excitement:
After the wind had stopped, three of our neighbors and a friend of ours came over to help us get the tree removed from our doorway so we could get in and out of the house. Before Sunday, we have not spoken much, if at all, with our neighbors. It was a community effort to clean up our tree and the one that fell in our neighbors yard across the street. I have heard some really heartwarming stories since Sunday about people helping one another. We fortunately did not lose power so we are housing some of our neighbors freezer items. We also have a co-worker staying at the house due to a power outage at her own residence. I am thankful that people can come together in times of need. And this was really not a big deal, but it is hard not to have electricity and many people are without food and water. Stores have been without ice for days and gas is also running very low. It has definitely been an interesting few days, but I am glad to be in the midwest where this is a rare experience!Here is what the tree currently looks like as we have not had time to remove the remaining portion: