Isabell -- SHMIZABELL
Isabell blew thru my neighborhood Thursday as well. at approximately 1am Friday morning, FHWUMP!!! the house shuddered, i sat up in the bed screaming at the same time the dog was barking.
I went into the bathroom to peer out the window. all i saw was limbs and leaves. "this cant be good" i muttered as i then go downstairs to get a better look out the porch window. all i saw was porch ceiling, the trunk of the tree, the corner post of the beautiful gingerbread porch broken and slammed into the front side of the house. my housemate (its HER HOUSE) called 911....and when they arrived, i went out to "better" survey the damage. well, what damage that can be seen in the inky darkness at 1am.
The roof is torn open like a can opener took after it....the porch itself? decimated; not much better than kindling now. Worse -- it took the lead power lines (our line from the street wires) down with it. Noting that some branches also fell in the neighbor's yard. i made sure that nothing had made contact. the fence on that side protected the vehicles some -- though it is also bent.
well...the STREET we live on got electricity back yesterday.
PEPCO has taped *our* house off with "danger" tape.
a gaggle of lookeee loos witnessed the whole production, yelling out-across the street "you need to get that taken care of....you have LAIGHVE wirhhes in youhhr yahhdd."
well....NO DUH! they talk like we LIKE being inconvenienced.....or ENJOY the sight of the house being torn open like an errant can opener ran amok. like all we've done since the storm was look at the tree wringing our hands in angst, wondering WHEN some big strong man will come and save the day. OR.....if we didnt ALREADY call the power company NUMEROUS times....NOT to mention the insurance. PEPCO told us NO ONE was to touch the tree til they did to free the power lines. so...what? we're doing this on purpose? i knew i could make stuff happen -- but blaming a hurricane damage on personal fault is a bit much.
of COURSE, AFTER the fact, each and every one of these rednecked yahoos KNEW that tree was a hazard. funny - how 2 arborists said trimminng the Black cherry was fine - but it appeared to be a GOOD STURDY TREE. how can you tell that a tree is going to uproot? is that disease? no. that is FREAK nature. that has to be the strongest tree i have ever seen. the only things onthat tree that broke...are the branches that were sacrificedd when they hit the house/ground. that tree tore the ground up on both sides of the fence....roots EVERYWHERE. ohhhh but they KNEW it was gonna do that. Worse....taunting across the street like they're escaped hillbillies from the holler where the only mode of communication was yelling across the glen.
its bad enough they have nothing better to do than to gawk at someone who ended up with the short end of the hurricane stick. clearly....their ma tellin em "mind your own business" fell on deaf ears -- worse -- dint fall at all.
we've been without power since 4pm thursday - and it wasn't even that windy at the time it went out.
but my neighbors? they are NOW total experts on all that is safety and storm preparation. and its OUR fault that the tree couldnt hold itself down in totally saturated soil....::sigh::
At LEAST i can sew in Landover, at my friends apartment.....AT LEAST. it may be ghetto fabulous (not the best neighborhood -- but not the projects either)....but AT LEAST the neighbors are entertaining -- and they dont "get all up in ya koolaid" as a good friend of mine used to say.
I went into the bathroom to peer out the window. all i saw was limbs and leaves. "this cant be good" i muttered as i then go downstairs to get a better look out the porch window. all i saw was porch ceiling, the trunk of the tree, the corner post of the beautiful gingerbread porch broken and slammed into the front side of the house. my housemate (its HER HOUSE) called 911....and when they arrived, i went out to "better" survey the damage. well, what damage that can be seen in the inky darkness at 1am.
The roof is torn open like a can opener took after it....the porch itself? decimated; not much better than kindling now. Worse -- it took the lead power lines (our line from the street wires) down with it. Noting that some branches also fell in the neighbor's yard. i made sure that nothing had made contact. the fence on that side protected the vehicles some -- though it is also bent.
well...the STREET we live on got electricity back yesterday.
PEPCO has taped *our* house off with "danger" tape.
a gaggle of lookeee loos witnessed the whole production, yelling out-across the street "you need to get that taken care of....you have LAIGHVE wirhhes in youhhr yahhdd."
well....NO DUH! they talk like we LIKE being inconvenienced.....or ENJOY the sight of the house being torn open like an errant can opener ran amok. like all we've done since the storm was look at the tree wringing our hands in angst, wondering WHEN some big strong man will come and save the day. OR.....if we didnt ALREADY call the power company NUMEROUS times....NOT to mention the insurance. PEPCO told us NO ONE was to touch the tree til they did to free the power lines. so...what? we're doing this on purpose? i knew i could make stuff happen -- but blaming a hurricane damage on personal fault is a bit much.
of COURSE, AFTER the fact, each and every one of these rednecked yahoos KNEW that tree was a hazard. funny - how 2 arborists said trimminng the Black cherry was fine - but it appeared to be a GOOD STURDY TREE. how can you tell that a tree is going to uproot? is that disease? no. that is FREAK nature. that has to be the strongest tree i have ever seen. the only things onthat tree that broke...are the branches that were sacrificedd when they hit the house/ground. that tree tore the ground up on both sides of the fence....roots EVERYWHERE. ohhhh but they KNEW it was gonna do that. Worse....taunting across the street like they're escaped hillbillies from the holler where the only mode of communication was yelling across the glen.
its bad enough they have nothing better to do than to gawk at someone who ended up with the short end of the hurricane stick. clearly....their ma tellin em "mind your own business" fell on deaf ears -- worse -- dint fall at all.
we've been without power since 4pm thursday - and it wasn't even that windy at the time it went out.
but my neighbors? they are NOW total experts on all that is safety and storm preparation. and its OUR fault that the tree couldnt hold itself down in totally saturated soil....::sigh::
At LEAST i can sew in Landover, at my friends apartment.....AT LEAST. it may be ghetto fabulous (not the best neighborhood -- but not the projects either)....but AT LEAST the neighbors are entertaining -- and they dont "get all up in ya koolaid" as a good friend of mine used to say.