More Storm Damage

After a long day of gardening,
my husband and I went out to eat.
We then decided to drive around and look at some
of the damage from Wednesday's storm.

This building at IU suffered some broken windows.

We decided to park and walk around the old part of campus
where the damage to the trees was particularly bad.



So that is where the Kirkwood Conservatory is.
In the woods.
Makes sense to me.
Uh huh.


The walk is blocked, but that doesn't stop this duo.


Trees are down everywhere.


This is Dunn's Woods.

This part of campus is called the Old Crescent
and is listed as a State and National Historical Place.

IU estimates that nearly 300 trees were downed or damaged
in the storm.

They believe it will take months to clear the debris.

Glass litters the grass.

It came from this street lamp.

This is what it is supposed to look like.

This tree was stripped like a banana,
a sign that it was hit by lightning.

A better look at the lightning-struck tree.

This large old tree fell near the center
of the old part of campus...

falling on the sundial and damaging it.

The Rose Well House was undamaged in the storm.
This structure was fashioned from two surviving portals
from the old College Building that had been
ravaged by fire at the Seminary Square site.

The statues of the man and woman are engulfed by
downed trees.

Look carefully - this tree was twisted.

This was definitely the work of an EF-1 tornado.

But still, we were lucky - very lucky.



And darn it all,
while out photographing the damage at
Seminary Square Park the other day,
I was caught on camera.

Now my cover is blown.

Photo credit: Chris Howell of The Herald-Times.

Storms Times Two

This week we were hit by not one,
but two severe storms.

The first storm hit Monday evening.

Fortunately,
we survived with only some furniture rearranged
on the deck.

Apparently it takes 60 mph winds to push
the table and chairs around.

At least the chimney survived the storm this time.

Thanks, Josh and crew!


Unfortunately B-town and surrounding areas
were not as lucky.

The high winds knocked down several old trees
and a few thousand people were without power
for a couple of days.
Just as the power company projected that all customers
would have their power back,
the second storm hit on Wednesday afternoon.

In addition to the downed trees,
a few businesses suffered damage
and a couple of mobile homes were overturned,
injuring the occupants.
Fortunately no one was seriously injured.

Update:
The authorities have confirmed that an F1 tornado
hit the mobile home park outside of B-town.
Again, though several homes were destroyed,
there were no fatalities.

We were lucky.

I wouldn't be surprised if they decide that
the tornado then moved up the road,
turning over the semis at WalMart,
damaging Sam's Club and perhaps even
tearing up the trees at Seminary Square Park
as these all are in a line that runs along
the track of the storm.

A downed tree viewed through the Sample Gates.

Trees were snapped off on campus.

A large tree fell on an IU building.
Because the ground is so saturated with the recent rains,
these large trees are easy to uproot.

Seminary Square near downtown B-town was hard hit.
This park has several large, old trees.

This furniture store across the street had some windows
that were damaged by the flying tree limbs.

The workers are already on the scene.

Seminary Square Park is the original site of Indiana University.
Situated on a hill south of downtown,
this site had some bad mojo going for it as
two fires at the original site destroyed two buildings.
The university then moved to its current location in 1884.

Bloomington High School then took over the location
at Seminary Square, but the high school was also
destroyed by fire in 1967.

This plaque states that this location marks the center
of the original building on campus.

But now the park is in shambles.

I wasn't the only one who stopped to survey the damage
and take pictures.

Storms like these are nature's trimmers.
Many of these trees were weakened by age, rot and decay.

After my meeting on campus
I headed out to WalMart to do some shopping.

I spotted a helicopter overhead.

Oops, WalMart is closed.

That semi isn't supposed to be that way.

Not good.
Not good at all.

Several sections of the privacy fence blocking the store
and parking lot from the neighborhood next door
were torn away.

Across the highway a section of an apartment building
was damaged.

Sam's Club also sustained roof damaged.

The Foodie Daughter was nice enough
to take some pictures for me when she went to classes
today.

This tree was knocked down by Monday's storm.

Too bad as it was a nice tree.

Bad storms.