Wind
Last night we had a bit of wind. I'm not sure what the wind speed was at our house but across the Houston area it was as high as 100 miles/hour. That's the wind speed of a category 2 hurricane! Yikes.
We were lucky. We had only minimal damage and everything is easily fixable.
The wind nearly knocked down a section of privacy fence along the side of our back yard. Our neighbors also lost a much larger section of their back fence. They are contacting the fence repairman and we will all pay our share of the expense to replace the damaged sections.
Ron and I were out there last evening nailing up laths to hold the fence together. He, of course, did most of the heavy lifting and I helped keep everything steady. Note the ladder wedged against the fence for additional support.
The wind blew several potted plants off the table on our back porch but thankfully did not break the pots or kill the plants. My marigolds and geranium are thankful.
One of our ferns on the front porch survived the tumble off it's stand but the pot was in chards. We will try to get another similar pot and get it repotted tomorrow.
We are thankful the damage wasn't any worse. There are a huge number of trees down all over Katy and the greater Houston area although in our immediate vicinity it's mostly small to medium sized tree limbs. People across the area have lost their homes and their cars. It will take months to put things right.
There was rain with this storm, we had about 3 inches, but it was mostly a wind event. It was, perhaps, most similar to Hurricane Alicia which hit downtown Houston in 1983. That was before we moved down to the Houston area but I have heard lots of stories from Peggy and seen the pictures - the streets of downtown Houston covered with wet paper and glass, whole office buildings now with all their windows open!
I hope everyone out there is safe and dry and has power as we do tonight. We are very thankful and hope the best for all our friends and neighbors.