Microbursts

I don't have a clue what's going on here, but this is the second microburst we've had hit our house in the last month and a half! After talking to my neighbors about the damage in our yard and around Richmond, I found out that both microbursts hit the exact same spots both times and nowhere else. Weird. It only hits from main street up 2 blocks and then stops. Last time it hit, we only had some branches break off our tree and stuff fly around the yard. This time, it did a lot more damage.

Mart had taken Ethan outside to play for a few minutes and was considering mowing the backyard. About 5 minutes later I walked outside and it started to get windy and sprinkle rain. Within about a minute, I could tell we needed to get in the house. The tree was shaking like crazy. About 10 seconds after shutting the laundry room door behind us, we heard it. Our shed took out our fence and flipped into the canal. Another couple of seconds later, our tree started to shred and about 1-2 minutes later it was completely over.

I'm glad nobody was hurt and nothing major was damaged. It could have been a lot worse. Here are some pictures from my backyard right after it happened.

My tree branch, patio furniture, grill pile:


Where my shed used to be. All the stuff was still pretty much in the same spot:


Where the shed took out the fence and the fence disconnected:


This is the fence post in that corner. It completely bent the pole!




Here is my shed in the canal. The good thing is there is no water in the canal at the moment so it's not blocking anything. We are still trying to figure out how to get it out.


Here is a tree branch that completely snapped but is still stuck in our tree. It's hard to see in the picture so I tried to illustrate it to help. The branch used to be connected at the circle on the left. It snapped and moved and is now the circle on the right.


Our neighbors just over the canal had their huge pine tree snap completely in half and land on some water pipes


This is just another view of my neighbors tree.



It was totally crazy! Mart was able to prop the fence back up and chain it enough that I can let the dogs out to use the bathroom without escaping too easily until we can get it fixed all the way.