What a strange start we’ve had to summer. Spring had loads of nice rain and cool temperatures, and we have continued to get periodic breaks in the heat (which really just started in earnest last week). We’ve gotten a couple of nice sailing days in, although for the last week we’ve been stymied by high winds. Yesterday we were disappointed that our planned Wednesday night sail might be canceled due to near zero winds. Little did I know that the predicted 20% chance of rain would turn into a full-bore severe thunderstorm complete with tornado warnings.

I knew Dallas had tornadoes, but it was unnerving to hear tornado sirens going off last night. Luckily we didn’t get a tornado, because I asked my 7-year-old neighbor for advice on what to do if the sirens went off. She said “we usually go into the bathroom, but you have a lot of windows, so you probably won’t make it”.

And we thought that was that. But then this morning the storms started again. The power was flickering, and then suddenly the winds got really strong, the power went out (as it turns out, for over eight hours),  it started to hail, and the street became a river. It was like Tropical Storm Alison. Garbage cans were floating down the street. I tried to go out to take a video, but the wind literally blew me back in. Twice. The wind settled down a bit after about ten minutes. My neighbor’s car was about to flood, but he was able to pull it into our driveway. He and I sat on my front porch for awhile and watched in amazement as our intersection disappeared under water.

After the storm cleared, I drove over to the lake to check on the boat. All of the traffic lights were out (not flashing, completely out). Trees were down all over Skillman. I was worried because the winds had been so high since last night, and I knew the lake would be severely flooded.

The lake was way over its banks, into the road. But because we chose a bright yellow boat cover, I could tell from far away that our boat was okay (fun fact, you can see our boat from an airplane!). I took some pictures and videos, and then, with another boat club member, used the club’s pedal boats (he had hip waders and could access them even though the docks were way under water) to rescue a small board boat that had broken free and washed up onto the road. We then rode the pedal boats right into the clubhouse, which was knee deep in water. I wish I had my camera for that! We stacked chairs and other items onto the tables and secured some of the disheveled smaller boats. It was actually fun, even though I later fell in the lake because I thought I was in the parking lot but was actually standing on the dock. Tomorrow the level will be low enough for me to go and make sure everything drained okay.

Tonight I walked up and down Swiss Avenue. There were so many big trees and limbs down there. I talked to a guy clearing a tree at one house, and he said the limbs displayed the spiral fracture pattern he sees in tornadoes. I don’t think we had a tornado, but it was close.

Tonight we had a beautiful sunset.