Windstorm

A little over a month ago or so, we were sitting on our living floor enjoying some nice weather with the windows open. We were watching a movie - I can't remember which one - and eating Chipotle burritos. There was a very light breeze. Out of nowhere, a huge gust of wind came up. Stuff in the house began to go flying. The pictures flew off the bookshelves. A little Halloween candle holder was hurled into the wall and smashed to bits. We both got up and raced around the house shutting the windows. We got into the spare bedroom to find that the window screen had been ripped from the window and was presumably flying around somewhere outside. The curtains were madly flapping outside the window.

After getting all the windows closed, we assessed the damage in the house. There was just the one candle holder broken; of course the curtains were a little dirty from hanging outside the house. Leaves were blown all over the house. Somehow mail from the dining room table had managed to blow all the way down the hall and into the spare bedroom and the guest bathroom, which has to be a good twenty feet with corners to turn.

We then decided we better go out to see if we could find our window screen in salvageable condition. Outside there was more destruction. Awnings had been blown off our building and the surrounding buildings. Most amazingly, two carports, the ones directly in line with our condo, had been bent completely downward. We walked through the rest of the complex, but oddly the wind gust seemed to have been centered right around the six or seven buildings in our area. The nearby pool area had patio furniture blown around. Nothing matched the destruction of our carports though. It was apparently a very localized windstorm.

Crushed Carports!















Flying Awnings!















We did find our window screen, but it wasn't salvageable. Luckily P&AF found a master window screen maker who accepted a bet to put a new window screen together in less than an hour for a case of beer.