Windy City Cincinnati

The Cincinnati Bengals played the Titans today, and just as my hubby and I were getting into the game, our power started flickering off and on. Outside the wind was gusting, tree branches were slapping against our windows, and we got to experience just a small taste of Ike. According to my family, the winds started at around 30 mph, and went up to around 50. Halfway into the first quarter of the game, our power went off for good, leaving us without electricity for about 2 hours.

Unlike sensible people, instead of staying inside where it's warm and safe, we had a birthday party to head to. We left the house just as our power came back on. Outside, the roads were littered with fallen twigs, and not a single traffic light was working. The wind was still blowing, rocking our car at times, and it was all rather freaky.

We drove from Finneytown up to Montgomery, and witnessed the extent of our neighborhood's damage first-hand. Many large branches had fallen, most narrowly avoiding the houses below, or stopped by another branch in the tree and left dangling. Whole trees were completely uprooted, and a couple of houses we drove by were missing vinyl siding. With the traffic lights all out, each intersection felt as we were risking our lives, people didn't seem to understand the concept of four-way stopping. On the highway, large branches blocked entire lanes, and empty cars were left on the shoulders with their emergency lights on.

When we left our house, our destination still had power, but as we arrived, their power had also gone out (and is still off as I write this). We grilled a quick birthday dinner outside, then quickly returned home after the presents were opened. We were visiting for around two hours, and on the way home, the streets were a lot clearer. Traffic lights were still out, but it seemed city crews had done a pretty decent job of clearing out the streets, or those without power could have done it out of boredom.

Our house is surrounded by tall trees. After a bad rainstorm last year, we actually had one of the trees fall in our back yard, narrowly missing the house. Luckily, this time around we only have twigs littering our back yard.