and the tree...came tumbling down...

damage to my roof becomes easier to see...certainly not as bad as some...judy, rebecca, debbie!!

...and as joe lets us know here, it cracked the ridge line but "it's not bad"!

thanks joe for taking a look...we just didn't know how bad it was...

                                            

                                    RIP mighty elm...we'll miss you.

son of (some of) the damage done...

it didn't take long for the tv stations to arrive...our little end of the street was prime real estate...i think most of us were interviewed at least once...

of notable interest, the iron gate lifted out of the ground by the roots of the elm...well that gate was installed just days before the storm...the red chair i had trashpicked the morning of the storm on my way to work!

the X F13 spray painted on the fallen tree means that firetruck #13 checked all property around this tree and deemed that there were no gas leaks or people or animals in trouble...

the day after the tornado we had 2 tornado warnings and a full on hail shower...remember no power yet...so friends were calling in the weather reports...what good friends i have (forever grateful, PAULA!!), other friends who didn't live in cabbagetown came in to help too...some came everyday and didn't require any socializing or direction, they just got to work...cutting branches, picking up shingles, bringing food and water...i STILL find shingles in the yard or under a cushion...so does judy...she lost the whole roof off the back of her house...just GONE!
the picture above is judy's front porch taken from michael's front porch...i stood inside michael's front door, holding belle on a leash during the hail...i was scared that a new tornado would touch down....
little ice nuggets in the sky...by roy estrada (stupid joke!)

the next step would be tree removal...eventually that happened and while still being stunned for days, possibly weeks...people began to repair and rebuild... i'm not sure just how many new roofs went on but it's all you could hear for months!

(some of) the damage done...

it's hard to believe i don't have more pix of this magnificent tree whose canopy covered half of my house and provided beautiful shade in the front...this old elm tree also made us stop and think before we parked our cars on the street, there are very few driveways in cabbagetown...branches would periodically crash down onto the sidewalk or street, not sparing any fence or car in its' path...just a few times in the past 10 years...but for years, during windy or stormy weather, i avoided parking under these branches...

i took this picture of a cute knothole earlier this year...practicing with my new camera...this knothole was SO cute (how cute was it?) i had to take a picture of it...WHO KNEW i would get a chance to own this??

who COULD know?!!

my house took such a hard hit that all the walls inside were cracked...just the drywall, no structural damage (they say) but for every room to have a visible crack in all 4 corners of all 4 walls...well you know it hurt!

i wouldn't know the extent of the damage until the tree came down...who knew that there would be delays and arguments concerning the tree removal?

rebecca's house has since been leveled and the land cleared so there is no trace of her home...that is some karmic shit rebecca...wow... 

the first few days after the storm, as we were all trying to figure out the next step...still processing just what this neighborhood had lived through...rebecca and i went back to her house a lot, we were all going back and forth...a lot...

there would be no power for 5 days...some people had it sooner but i remember 5 days filled with candles and fireplaces and firepits...

rebecca was able to salvage everything she could with the help of friends and neighbors and move it all to storage...i have no idea how she managed that and i'm not sure she does either:)...we went back to look for forgotten or missed things...i was very nervous inside her house with the tree still on it...such navigation it took to get in and move around from room to room, OY!

when we were standing by the mantle i had to laugh and ask her to pose in a somewhat traditional living-room mantle pose...

up and down every street there was evidence of mother nature's power...incredible to live amongst this destruction...here are two houses toward the north end of my block, each house got their own tree, haha...one for you and one for you!!

i think we possibly lost the most trees (or are in a tie with powell st.)

carroll street, home of the cafe...2 blocks over...after the cafe got their power back, day 3 i think, i would begin each day there for coffee and charging up all my charge-upable things...this was also a great place to start friendships and share stories...i will always love the cafe for that:)

peaches on sunday morning...

later that same evening...

after checking that my son and dog were safe...and my home was still standing...there was nothing i could do except hit the streets with everyone else to survey the damage and make sure people and pets were ok...

amazingly enough all pets and friends were OK!

since i arrived home hours after the storm hit i got to hear a lot of scary yet successful rescue stories...

so many cabbagetown tornado stories have already been told,  here is mine...

i'm finally ready now that home repair is almost complete...7 months of insurance co. problems, finding the right contractor, indecision, exhaustion, frustration, gratitude and more...

look at shards of judy's house embedded in hudson and kevin's house...hudson was sitting in this room working when it hit...one shot of the inside and one of the outside!

rebecca...OH what can i say about this??

she wasn't home either but arrived shortly after the storm hit and saw THIS...her cats were home though and were found inside safe and sound...

i think this picture was taken around 4 am...mark is thrilled to have found his trash cans just 2 blocks away:)

i know no one slept that night and many were told not to enter their homes, including me...i did anyway and spent the next week in the downstairs bedroom...i could "feel" the weight of the tree on my house...the creaking noises were incredible...but i would not leave...

the next morning would begin the battle to figure out what to do next...as PREDATORS...tree removal, roofing, contracting predators descended on cabbagetown...i was able to ignore most of it...the tree blocking entry to the front of my home helped!