Well, that was a pain

Look, an update: They have confirmed it was a tornado. According to WDET, there were two. Ours started at 21 Mile Rd and Hayes, crossed Garfield around 18 Mile then went its way OVER the Crew! It was apparently about 250 yards wide.

The other, moments later started at Groesbeck and Metro Pkwy, collapsed the Sunoco at 15 and Harper, turned south on Harper towards St Clair shores where it was denied entry and collapsed.

As Jen stated, our initial concern was for her and Will and Ari as they were north of us as was the storm. Initial reports indicated a funnel cloud had been spotted but they didn't state where or if it was on the ground.

Looking at the radar, a large crimson square was animatedly marching directly towards Jared and I.

At first it looked like a typical storm: Clouds, wind, rain. Then we noticed a large, lower cloud begin to turn and tendrils began to drop from its center:


It further developed and despite appearances here, looked more as if the cloud rose up from the ground rather than drop out of the sky.

And then it got serious

The last I saw of the funnel it was delimbing the willow across the street. The remains of the willow here, the left half now on the ground:

Jared and I scurried into the basement and positioned ourselves under the shortest stretch of cross beams from I-beam to foundation wall, figuring that would be the best reinforced. It sounded like sitting on the side of a busy freeway and got really freaky when the pressure started bouncing around, causing our ears to pop repeatedly. It was sort of like the sensation at a loud rock concert with really heavy bass. Whoomp. Whoomp, whoomp. Whoomp.

The whoomping stopped and I went up to peak outside. It was still coming down really hard and this is what it looked like:

Complete white out. I couldn't see the car, two feet outside the car. I quickly retreated to Jared.

Finally it subsided and we went out to look. The backyard wasn't too bad:

But we got at least six inches of rain in less than 30 minutes

The neighbor diagonally from us had a wooden play set that was lifted up and left on their deck:

Directly next door to us, the tree was uprooted and they also suffered significant roof and siding damage.

Slight rainbow

There was a bit of accumulated hail, the lawns were like ice rinks

Down the street (you can try clicking the pics to see better), a trampoline lies in a neighbor's front yard and a damaged tree. It looks like a truck drove across our neighbor's lawn by that was actually caused by the storm.

Those tracks appear to end about 6 feet before our driveway but they actually began to turn south there, directly into the neighbor on the other side.

Jared and I took the opportunity to throw some snowballs..

Down the street there was a tree down and many of the streets were flooded. While we went to help clear the drains, one neighbor told us we should watch our basement since after storms like this everyone's basements usually flooded. Thought I, we have a back up sump pump -- so we had been told.

Throughout the neighborhood, dozens of trees were destroyed

One 40 foot pine tree was snapped about 10 feet up. The other 30 feet were sent across the street into another yard.

This of course, ended all hope for the gardens... The peppers, leaves frozen in terror, pointing south. The basil behind it is totally lost.

What's left of the onions

What used to be coriander and oregano

And, no more flowers

We also discovered that there is no back up sump pump. So awesome Ari and I made at least 150 trips from the sump well to the toilet, 7 gallons at a time. (Or, to put it another weigh, moved at least 1,050 gallons at water which equates to 8,400 pounds.)

A little water extraction this morning and the house is mostly de-swamped.

The pool, on the other hand...

And, by the way, did we mention, A TORNADO WENT DIRECTLY OVER US!