Here we go again...

What is up with thunderstorms this summer?  I don't ever remember a summer with weather this violent - crazy.

So while we've had the usual problems of fallen tree limbs again...

...the real story this time around was a loss of power for 24 hours and significant flooding.

This street is about a quarter of a mile from my house.  If you can kind of pick out the black gates in front of the red house, that's supposed to be guiding a sidewalk around a small stream.  By the way, those people on the bikes eventually decided they would try to ride across.  The water went all the way up to their seats.

Here's that gate up close and personal :

Looks like Niagara falls.  I remarked to one of the bicyclists that this would be a hell of a lot of fun if you had a kayak.

We lost power for 24 hours and I was extremely worried that our sump pump area would back up into the crawl space.  I came home in a panic on Thursday night and pulled all of the cardboard boxes out of the crawl, leaving the plastic tubs in.  My panic turned out to be for nothing as our crawl stayed dry as a bone throughout the whole ordeal. 

We did have to sleep as one big family in the living room.  The kids slept on the futon and us parents slept on the floor.  The kids were fairly frightened by all the lightning and thunder.  Actually it was quite a show.  I saw some of the best lightning strikes that I have seen in years last night.

Our neighbors across the street were not so lucky on the flooding front.  They have a raised ranch which puts their basement floor at the same level as our crawlspace.  They had carpet down there and unfortunately water got in and it flooded.  The worst part is they were scheduled to leave for a Niagara Falls vacation today (how ironic) and they had to cancel their plans.

So once again, a huge storm passes through my neighborhood and we emerge more or less unscathed.  We are very thankful to the Lord for blessing our house in this way.