It's been a long time since I've posted. I could blame it on golf but I do that during the day and generally blog at night. The frank truth is that I promised blog topics that would not be depressing to my audience -- and I think therein lies the choice of demurring rather than letting you all know what I've been upset about. It seems like this summer there has been a lot of stuff that has been both annoying and irritating to me. Chalk it up to "old codgerism" or maybe the oppressive heat. That said, my golf game has been rewarding and lucrative.
Yet all of a sudden, after weeks of temperatures in the mid to high 80's and low 90's, on Tuesday afternoon, July 17, we finally had a humdinger of a thunderstorm that broke the daily routine. Our inground pool, for instance, suddenly gained two inches of water in less that half an hour. Since my wife was off in Cornwall, Canada with her best bud getting her hair done, I had the afternoon to piddle around with tasks that wouldn't require the expenditure of too much energy while it was 92 in the shade. I also think that it's nice and somewhat unique that my wife travels to Canada for an event that takes me 15 minutes just outside the village, costs $10, and fills up my reservoir of gossip. For her it costs considerably more and requires a passport...
Meanwhile, as the storm clouds gathered, I came into our house (with central air) and turned my rocking chair around facing toward Potsdam so the entertainment event of MY afternoon could be observed firsthand.
It basically got blacker and blacker. Usually, summer thunderstorms head down the river towards Montreal. This one, according to the National Weather Service, and on-line at 2:45 p.m., showed a humdinger with several cells on the way. Basically, everything around Potsdam was red with yellow borders. It was bearing down on our little village at a rate of 84 mph per hour with tornado warnings, large hail and dangerous lightening. And I HATE lightening. I put the car into the garage since the damage of golf ball-sized hail that might inflict on sheet metal and glass would ruin my whole day.
Well, as expected, the storm descended with fury. The curious thing for me was watching a light gray pair of clouds moving across the horizon directly over Potsdam (I live just south of the village). What struck me was their speed. And then suddenly they dipped downward. All of the trees in my immediate surrounding area began shaking violently. The two clouds, now directly over Potsdam, simply merged into a blinding rainstorm. There were constant sheets of heavy rain, but only one or two blasts of lightening and no hail in our neigborhood. I was thankful. It was a rousing storm to watch.
Then suddenly, reality struck me. I had forgotten to put down the reed shades on our screened-in Adirondack porch. I ran and opened the door, only to discover, thankfully, that the antique furniture was still dry there -- in spite of the heavy winds. Storms here usually descend upon us from the west, but Tuesday afternoon it was a ringer from the north/northwest -- unique. When I flipped the electrical switch my big discovery was that my house had no power.
Okay, so I thought it was just another summer thunderstorm. No big deal! Boy did I have THAT wrong! My wife returned home (from the north/northeast) about half an hour later and was flabbergasted. It had taken her a half hour to drop off her friend and drive two and a half miles to our home. Road blocks everywhere; major tree limbs across many of the main streets.In fifteen minutes Potsdam had been turned into a shambles. My "go to" hardware store had it's roof blown off. It was sitting in the middle of the Raquette River. Sergi's, my favorite restaurant, was without its roof. It had flown onto the local liquor store, trapping the employee on duty. What a horrible punishment. By the time he was "rescued," I assume he was drunk as a skunk. There was not a single fatality in this entire event. Remarkable!
The storm path (which was not deemed a tornado or a microburst), simply traveled in a straight line at destructive speed. Most of Potsdam is alligned in such a way that the trees that came down were on a parallel line with sidewalks and homes. That is, except for my friend Ted Prahl, owner of Ted's Treads, a high end bike store. I figure that a direct hit by a mature maple cost him probably 50 to 100 bicycles profit. As I walked around the village today, I walked past Ted's house. He saw me and came out, reporting that removal of the tree on the top of his houseand in his yard had already cost him $2300. And his Victorian mansard roofed home built in 1880 had taken a direct hit.
Later, I walked my back forty. Nothing serious. My chainsaw will make quick clean-up of minimal damage. The line of disaster was roughly along the shore of the Raquette River, of which I am on the opposite side.
In retrospect, and in light of global warning, in which I believe, Potsdam took a heavy hit. It was not Joplin, Missouri, however, and, certainly, it was NOT Hurricane Irene last fall. Today, Governor Cuomo declared Potsdam and St. Lawrence County a disaster area to expedite repairs. And the insurance adjustors have hit town. It's amazing how quickly private contractors, insurance folks and electrical grid personel appear on the scene. Their restoration efforts are laudable; their costs incredible.
One never knows how lucky he is to be spared a major disaster. If the oak in the back yard had come down, it would have simply crushed my home, and the cost of destruction would have exceeded $200,000 or more, factoring in insurance. As is was, I went out into my yard and picked up a few downed branches. I also waiked the north forty, and an hour of chainsaw work will easily clean up the downed branches and limbs.
I have decided that it's all serendipity. My heart goes out to the Colorado fire victims and the unbelieveable distruction that occurred in the south this past spring. There but for the grace of God...
And then today, the horrible news from Aurora, Colorado blazed across our screens. I was reminded again of the movie "Schindler's List," Using Auscwitz inmates for target practice. It's all so senseless and random. Meanwhile, Potsdam will carry on.
And Potsdam's little disturbance was minimal by comparison. In the greater scheme of things, random violence by nature and random violence by humans are simply hard to compare...
Carry on,
Paul in Potsdam, NY
http://www2.potsdam.edu/loucksap
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