Destruction

On Thursday night a crazy storm blew through. Wind gusts in our town reached more than 70 miles an hour and wind gusts of over 90 miles an hour were recorded on the Isle of Shoals, islands located several miles off shore. The winds sounded like huge trucks were barreling down on our house and our house shook and shuttered as it was pounded by the winds and rain. Also included in the storm - thunder and lightening. Amazingly both Davis and Oliver slept through the storm.

When we awoke in the morning we saw several small tree limbs down in the street and yard, but overall things looked ok. As it turns out, we fared very well compared with others. The streets of Newburyport are littered with shingles, trees are down everywhere, roofs got blown off - and many people lost power for several days (we were lucky and only lost power for a couple hours).

I tried to go to grocery shopping on Friday only to discover that the place I shop had no power as a massive tree and six telephone poles were down on and around their building.

Yesterday Davis, Oliver and I went to Mausley State Park and found the destruction there to be unreal. The park is filled with huge old pine trees. We found that many trees had fallen and many others had been snapped as though they were twigs. The trails which are normally well maintained were covered with debris, leaving many of the trails nearly impassable. These pictures can't even begin to show the level of destruction - the park's 450 acres are literally changed forever due to the number of trees that were impacted by the storm.