Windstorm in Cincinnati

Things have been crazy in the Cincinnati area since last Sunday. On Sunday afternoon the remains of hurricane Ike passed through the area. We didn't get any rain, but the wind was some of the worst I've ever seen. The paper reported consistent gusts in the upper 50 mph range with peak gusts in the upper 70 mph range. Trees were down all around the area and lots of shingles were blown off buildings. Over 600,000 customers were without power. Gas stations couldn't pump gas, traffic lights weren't operating (and people apparently don't know the intersection becomes a 4 way stop) -- it was nuts.

We were pretty fortunate. We only lost our power for about 18 hours. Several of my friends at work still don't have power today. We just got our cable TV and Internet access back today, so this is the first chance I've had to post some photos of the damage in our neighborhood.

After the storm passed we went for a quick walk around the neighborhood. Just a few buildings away a tree fell and damaged a second story deck and broke the glass on a sliding glass door. One of our neighbors got out his chainsaw and started the cleanup. Click here to see a larger version.



A couple blocks away a large tree fell across the road and took out a lot of electric and telephone wires in the process. Click here to see a larger version.



Finally, this tree trunk snapped at the base and when the tree fell it just missed the corner of a house by about 6 feet. It took out quite a few wires too. Dianne is there for scale. Click here to see a larger version.



Hopefully crews will get power restored to the rest of the customers within the next couple days.