Last night, we had a storm. It dumped 3.6 inches of rain in 90 minutes. It seemed to be the most intense lashing rain and wind I have ever experienced. A few years ago, we experienced what is called "straight line" winds of 70 miles an hour and they took down a great many trees. I don't know what the wind speeds were last night but the rain whipping against the windows sounded unreal. I felt I was listening to an amateur attempt to scare me and it was being overdone.
Lynn was out at a meeting of the Q Gallery coop members and came home as it was slacking off. Normally, she would drive through an underpass under the railroad lines but it was flooded with water 3 ft deep. It was blocked off and traffic had to find other routes.
At lunch, every guy at the table but me had lost power. Some had regained it and some were looking at 2 or 3 days before restoration.
Lynn and I rode around town this morning to look at what was down. Many large branches had been ripped off of trees. We might have seen eight or so large trees completely uprooted, the entire mammoth plant lying on its side with a giant root ball jutting out of the ground. There were crews all over with chain saws and carts and trailers removing the debris.
It is no fun with nature gets all stirred up. I am reminded of the book "The Invention of Air" by Steven Johnson. The idea is that at one time in the history of our planet, there was no atmosphere but natural processes created one. Now as we get uneven heating and hot air masses and cooler ones colliding, we little bits can get blown about. The lovely large trees that have been our friends and neighbors can be ripped in half and killed. We could do with not too much of that.
We did see the marquee of the shop in the Lincoln Center very squarely hit by a big tree. Its trunk struck the little roof and broke straight through. That was probably the worst piece of real damage we saw on our ride.
