Power On...But Not For Everyone

A down tree in a neighborhood near ours...
Well, we lost power last night around 11:30 p.m. (Friday the 12th)...the kids didn't notice anything! We had them sleeping on the floor of our room in sleeping bags...just in case of tornadoes. Around 6 a.m. the power came on...for like 10 minutes. I really heard the winds and rain then. I saw flashes of light, that were probably the transformers popping. A couple hours later I awoke to my friend calling from Orlando. My mother-in-law in Ohio called to check as well. We had hard times getting cell calls in and out...the texts were working better. We went out when it was just raining and still a little windy to see what happened. There were some shingles of our roof, but more were off of some of our neighbors, especially across the street. There is a section of fence down in our backyard, and the trampoline has a lot of tree branch and leaves in it. But, we really did good. We talked with neighbors who had a hard time sleeping, hearing the wind and the shingles popping off. We drove in the car to get a little a/c and look around, even though they told people not to be out driving. There were some blinking lights, and we found that some streets in our own subdivision had power. Some older neighborhoods by us had huge trees ripped up and whole fences knocked down. They had a lot more debris to worry about raking and cleaning up. We went to check out some of our friends close by, and they had no power and had good luck with their property. Some of the stores had signs ripped off and thrown across the street. The McDonald's in the Wal-Mart caught fire in the early morning. There was some huge lights from the 24 Hour Fitness parking lot completely fallen over. We got home and found we had power. Yay! Nick's brother Bob and wife Carolina, closer to the coast, still were out of power. They were ready to come over. They came, and we had fajitas on the grill. So, they are staying the night, and hopefully they will be able to get power turned on soon. My sister further north, kinda were the eye continued up, is out of power, and then her car wouldn't start. My mom was supposed to be going out there to get her and her 5 kids. I am getting a little tired of the news, but it is interesting and amusing to see some of the people and what they are doing and did--staying on these islands and going to get gas at 11 at night? why? Anyways, Katy Mills is supposed to be open tomorrow--maybe I'll hit the mall!