"weather war"
Apr 16, 2001, 10:32 p.m.

A violent storm pushed its way through Houston today.

The evidence of it was everywhere. Cars haphazardly poised about the sides of the highways. High water around every turn. Trees destroyed. Hail mounds like snow - out of place in Houston, littered parking lots and roof tops.

I sat in traffic quite a long time driving home this evening due to the heavy rain. I really hate traffic and I especially hate it when it's raining.

Driving down my street, I saw tree branches laying everywhere like strewn pick-up sticks left untouched.

There were no lights in the neighborhood. The signals at the intersections were out, causing greater bottlenecks than just the rain. As I pulled into my driveway I saw that my house was dark and my neighbor was yanking severed tree branches down from the boughs of the chinaberry tree in my front yard (he's such a good neighbor and I don't even know his name!)

There was no electricity in any of the homes all up and down the street. The backyard was a mess. The hail had torn up my patio furniture and the ribbing was shredded to pieces.

Leaves were everywhere like old confetti after a parade.

The electricity came on at 8:30 this evening but as I write this, the city is cleaning up the strewn branches and Houston Lighting and Power is still trying to restore electricity to the homes on the other side of the street where the power did not come on.

I look out my window where the branches are all piled up in rows at the curb and it makes me think of being in a fort.

Me and mine have weathered worse and yet, each time a storm tears up the city, I'm left with a feeling of how lucky we are to have not taken a full frontal attack from those powerful forces of nature.

Some folks are still without power. Some folks had real property damage. Yet I don't think anyone was hurt.

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