the perfect storm

last week thursday (well, 10 days ago so i guess two thursdays ago) i arrived back home in wisconsin for some well needed family/friends/lake/small town catch up time. i arrived literally- just. in. time. if i had arrived a few hours later i probably wouldn't have made it in for another two days. a storm came through our area like i've never seen before!

early afternoon on thurdsay

i got in to the milwaukee airport around noon, picked up my mom's car from the parking lot and drove home. all's well so far! i get home and we have no food. i mean this in one of the most literal senses of the word. my mom left a note on the counter for me apologizing, and also giving me suggestions on what i could eat (how sweet!)...i could make a frozen pizza, or a baked potato, or some pancakes. hmmm. well, that's ok because i have some errands to run anyways, so i can stop at the grocery store on my way back.

about an hour later, i look outside and think, hmm, it's really going to rain, i'd better get my errands done before it gets bad. so i leave the house and am listening to the radio on the way to the craft store Ben Franklin. about a mile away from my house and two miles to my destination it starts giving off alerts..."severe thunderstorm warning." no big deal. they give those WAY too often and they never manifest into anything...then i hear "tornado watch"...yeah, well, it's not a warning, it's not like they've spotted one on the ground...followed by "flash flood warning"...good thing i'm in my car?...and then..."tornado warning for the following areas...ixonia, johnson creek, oconomowoc, okauchee, nashota, delafield"...okay, well it's a good thing i'm at my destination i guess!

as i get out of my car, the oconomowoc sirens start going off, and i can only laugh as i run from my car into the craft store and one of the employees waves me in yelling "get in the back! a tornado has touched down in johnson creek and is moving at 45mph!" just my luck that i'd end up in the storm shelter in the craft store with women with real wisconsin accents and their craftily decorated apparel. not that this was bad- they were very nice- just quite a juxtaposition from what i was experiencing mere hours earlier in dc!

since i'm sure i have you worried by now, take comfort- everyone survived. we left the back locker room as soon as the sirens turned off, i bought a thing or two and waited about 15 minutes for the sky to turn back from yellow to gray and was on my way. i did try to be smart though, so i skipped the grocery store and went straight home. i didn't want to end up in another back room!

what the sky looked like when i got home, probably around 4pm

a few hours went by. the rain stopped, and then it looked like it was going to start up again, so of course i decided i better hurry to the grocery store before it did! i must have the worst timing in the world because it was POURING like you can't believe as i drove down the street!!! the rain and not being able to see while driving actually didn't bother me as much as the low lightning flashes every 15 seconds. for honestly the first time in my life, i turned around after two blocks because of "bad weather" (and think about how many times i've driven in snow...puh-lease) and went back home for fear of dying by lightning bolt. 

when i got inside i went to "take shelter in the basement" as the weather channel instructed, though i'm not usually compliant to what they tell me. i think i must have issues with authority. i brought a flashlight, a few candles, my cell phone in case the power went out and a stranger broke in and tried to attack me (my mag-lite was also like 10 pounds, so i was relieved to know that it could double as a light source and a weapon if needed) and i watched an episode of Friends online. it was great! i also captured this little ditty through our back porch door for my loyal fan-base. i wanted you to really get the full experience of this wild and crazy storm...i love thunder as much as the next thunder fanatic, but this was a little intense for my liking.

the rain continued all night long and through the next morning. the MKE airport closed altogether due to the runways being flooded and my mom, who was supposed to fly in from florida thursday night, had to fly from florida to atlanta to chicago and take a bus from chicago to milwaukee to get in by friday morning. yikes!

here are some pics of the aftermath. it's mainly just a few downed tree limbs and some major lake flood-age.

some of the aforementioned downed tree limbs.

the pier shouldn't have water on the grassy side...

those submerged rocks aren't supposed to be submerged.

the flooded sea-wall from the other direction. everything to the left of those stones is supposed to be JUST grass! you can see my neighbor's yard covered in water- all the way up to the garage door of their boathouse. the lake is still flooded, and the entire lake is still a "Slow, No Wake" zone, as it has been since i got home. NO FUN.