Nomadic Thoughts: Graves and Storms on 5-25

So yesterday my family (Grandma, Aunt Pam, Dad) and I went to do a Memorial Day tradition of putting flowers on the gravestones of Dad's side of the family. (Grandpa usually comes but couldn't make it this year as he had to do something with one of his horses at the last minute notice)

We traveled to Harrison, Ohio and saw my Great Grandma Zeumer's grave (she recently passed away in April at the age of 98) as well as the rest of her and my grandmas family. Then we went to Brookville and saw my Great Grandma White's gravestone and her families plots. We also met up with my Great Aunt and Uncle Don and Kath.

After their we went to one final graveyard to see some more of my Grandma's family plots at a small Methodist church north near the Brookville Reservoir. When the Unslers and Monroe's are buried.

After seeing all of those sites we headed to the Hearthstone restaurant in Metamora and ate dinner with Kath and Don who met us there. A debate was had amongst our family as how it was strange their lunch buffet did not include the salad bar and how they had never heard of that.

After we got home I headed into work for a bit and then went to the gym to work out, I had head their was going to be a storm coming in but I don't get worried about storms at all so hadn't paid attention to it. Well about 5:15 pm everyone there has stopped exercising as in gathered near the glass windows facing the street as the storm hits... for awhile you could not see anything in the parking lot as the rain and debris stopped us from seeing anything. The picture I took here with my camera phone you can sort of make out a car in the background, but this was about 3-4 minutes after the worst part of the storm had whipped through.

Of course everyone was on their cell phones and checking with their families, one guy had heard the roof of his house was in the street and that the garage door was no where to be found. Charlie, one of the trainers, had called his sister who worked across the street at Arby's and they had found the Gentle Dental sign in their parking lot (about a quarter of a mile and across St. Rd. 3 from where it originated). I later confirmed this sign report.

* I had gotten a text from Steve saying he didn't want to die at walmart :P granted he couldn't see outside and people always exaggerate reports to make it seem more extreme so I have no idea what he was hearing was happening. Luckily for him walmart has backup power.

The wouldn't let us work out with no lights, so Scott and I took these pictures out the backdoor of Anytime Fitness.

Piles of hail were around most buildings and in the parking lot

The hail was all different sizes

After waiting around 10-15 minutes and finding out neither my parents nor Erin's grandparents had electric I decided to head out. Erin's grandparents asked me to pick up dinner, and I gave Scott a ride home so he wouldn't get stuck in another storm is one came in quick (we had no idea when the next would hit). Then I went to find food, first I tried Arby's but soon found all of Lincoln St. was without power, so I went to Wendy's and picked up dinner.

While taking Scott home

After grabbing the food I headed to Erin's where traffic was stopped on 3 for a bit, where it looked like a semi-truck had been overturned into a ditch and they had just got it back on the road. (It looked like someone had twisted its trailer).

Ate dinner with Erin's parents and listened to the radio while playing cards by candlelight. I was regretting working out since I never had a chance to shower. When reports of a second storm were coming in we went to the basement and sat for about an hour. Erin and I watched an episode of law and order on her laptop before the battery gave out, while her grandparents listened to WTRE.

After that Erin and I went for a walk, and then it was decided I should try to make it home before the last wave of bad storm hit. I could have stayed the night on the floor but I knew my Dad had his generator running so I could take a cold shower and see the news (he runs the TV and water pump on the generator.. the essentials as he would say).

*During the walk Megan reported to me that her house in Bloomington had taken a lot of damage, but that she was ok! The storm did end up covering a large area with its multiple tornado alerts.

But before I left Erin and I drove to Sandusky to see if it was damaged like the reports on the radio had been saying.... the verdict... nope it was perfectly fine! They all even had electric.

On my way home I was hit by really heavy rain and a little hail, but it wasn't too bad of a drive home and I made it safe.

Overall I'd say the storm is going to go down as being over hyped, I'm not saying that there wasn't a lot of damage... just I think it will be blown out of proportion in a few weeks when people look back at it. I feel like I'm helping to over hype it now that I have made this whole blog post. But I like storms and there are some good pictures of the damage that I have grabbed to post here.

Greensburg Daily News Photos:

Courthouse

Enniking Auto Repair, along 421 what I would say was the hardest hit area in Greensburg. To bad I didn't find many pictures of the surrounding area. most were taken near the park which was also hit hard.