Flooding

Well, after a peaceful 3 hours of sleep, I woke to the sounds of Whipper giving himself a wet bath.

I got up to go to the bathroom and found myself walking in puddles. The entire basement where we were sleeping had been flooded.

We woke everyone up and proceeded to empty out the furniture and all our wet belongings, and pull up the carpet. 2 hours later, we had done everything we could and most decided to go back to bed, Jake, his Mom and I all slept in the livingroom unsure what to expect next.

Permanent damage seems minimal, but we have to get some help to dry out the soaking carpet.

Life goes on and the humidity of the south has returned.

Jake got some amazing photos, which I will post soon.

Dissipating

12:40 Lightning continues to hit us continually. The rain is pouring down, flooding being reported, loss of power, hail, wind in certain areas. As we sit and watch the news, we continually look outside and see this incredible storm coming through. Still hearing intermittent tornado sirens, still debating the need to move to the basement, we watch as 3 separate storms coming through at the same time. We are at the south-eastern part of the city and it is coming from North-West, so we're watching it hit the city before it hits us.

12:50 The warnings have dissipated. Still lots of rain, lightning, but it looks like the eye of the storm has passed. Time to go to bed.

Goodnight all

Tornado watch

So, my first tornado watch.

At 11:30 p.m. I went outside with the dog and noticed some wicked lightning, seemingly from all over the sky. I commented on how cool it looked.

20 minutes later, sirens started to go off. I didn't really notice until Jake's Mom commented that they were tornado warnings. I didn't really think much about it until she said we should wake up Jake's father.

We turned on the news, and found that there was a tornado watch, meaning that there was either a tornado sighted or high enough winds for a slow rotation. Recommendations were to go to the basement or to a closet.

After calls were made to all family members downtown where the storm was to hit first,
we woke up Grandma and are getting ready to make our way to the basement The lightning is getting intense, and I have no idea what to expect.

Jake says he has seen these warnings 15 times in his life and never seen a tornado, but to see how many people are moving to the basement, it's amazing to believe something could be happening.

12:05 The expectation is that the storm should hit here at 12:35 a.m. We're deciding what to do next. Go outside and watch or head to the basement.

I'll write again soon, I'm going to check the lightning.

Toby

Isn't she pretty
Originally uploaded by climberkim

Welcome to our new home.

We are back on the road, well sort of. We (Jake and I, my soon to be husband) have both quit our jobs, put our stuff in storage and are on the road.

We will spend a month in Columbus and Kentucky, where as you may remember from the past, I spent a year and fell in love (both with the place and with Jake). After returning to see some friends and trying to remember how to climb, we will return to Montreal and to our cottage, where we will spend a month preparing the property for the first of 2 weddings.

Then, back down to Columbus for our second wedding. Yes, you heard right. 2 weddings means 2 big days and 2 days to wear my wedding dress. And for those of you who are wondering, I did buy a real wedding dress.

Then, we are off. Mountains, forest and water are our destinations. Mostly the US, we will explore and see what we discover as we pray that Toby makes it to the next destination.

Yes, we will be poor, yes we will be bringing Whipper and yes, we are very excited.

Stay tuned for further updates as the adventure begins. Please check out our other photos by clicking on My Albums and navigate through the past couple of years of adventure.

Kim and Jake