Thursday, April 16, 2009

??Gravity Wave??

Last Sunday night, Easter, we had no tornado watches or warnings, no thunderstorm watches or warnings for our area or central Alabama. There were warnings for south Alabama though. All our weather said was rain and wind. Little did we know a lot of rain coming down at one time can cause what is called a "gravity wave" of wind. They explained it like a bucket full of water being poured very quickly to the ground and the wind that is produced from it. This was new to us!! They were saying possibly 60-70 MPH winds! I went to bed at 10:45 thinking nothing was going to happen. At 12:45, I was awaken to the weather alarm going off. They gave an "alert" but no warning or watch. I got up and checked the TV, nothing. I logged onto our local station's radar and chat room. The chat was reporting trees down, power lines down etc. to the west of me and coming our way. Of course, now there was no way I would be able to go back to sleep. I sat up reading the chat and listening to the wind get stronger and stronger outside. Something that sounded like metal hit the side of my house one time but I never found out what it was. The chairs on my porch or deck never even blew over...strange. I looked out my back door and thought I saw a tall tree down. I tried to shine the flashlight but could not tell for sure. Oh yeah, the power of course went out about 2 AM. It was all over around 4 AM and I layed back down at 4:30. Finally fell asleep at 5 and got up for work at 6 with no power or water. My water is a well, so without power to pump the water up, there is no water! When I got up and looked out back with a little daylight, that tree was down as were two more.




Then I go to my car and see my phone line drooping over another line and broken into out at the road! I live about 1.8 miles from the main highway on a rural road. On my way to the highway I have to stop because a tree in across the road and resting on a power line. There is a guy with a chain saw and several people stopped helping remove the tree so traffic can pass. I took a picture of this. A little further down the road is another tree that has been cut just enough for a vehicle to get through.



This is pictures taken from my driveway as I was leaving my house. This is the barn my great-grandfather built that now belongs to my brother.


Our power was restored by 5 PM Monday. Everyone around my house did not lose their phone service because the line that was broke was just to my house. They finally restored the phone line and my DSL today, Thursday afternoon.

Have any of you heard of a Gravity Wave?


3 comments:

meb said...

Whoa Donna... what a mess. So glad you are all okay. This type of weather is so scary and disruptive (as well as destructive.

Thanks for the pix showing the damage. Sorry your gf's barn got a large brunt of the storm, but it can be fixed.

Rest when you can.

Laurie said...

I have never heard of it but it sure left a lot of damage. Beautiful area you live in, though!

Sydney said...

Never heard of it either. SOunds rather sci fi, but there are all sorts of things traveling invisibly and going through our bodies that we don't take into account. My internet doesn't work while the microwave is running and my radio buzzes every time my cell phone is activated, to name two examples.

Mother Nature is powerful, and seems to like your area unfortunately!