What a day. The morning began at 5:30AM when Nick's alarm went off. We both got up and readied ourselves in preparation to get Nick to the airport. Tony, Nick's teammate came over for a ride to the airport and away we went. Tony said that there were like 80mph winds up north and I wondered if flights were going to be delayed. I got back home and turned on the news and there was crazy coverage about there being 92mph winds at 6AM. I continued to watch and Nick texted and said that his flight was not delayed. I continued to watch the news coverage and the winds got even stronger tapping out at 102mph for a few hours. Nick called when he arrived in Denver and said the take off from Salt Lake was the worst take off ever! I believe it! In Denver there was a little snow and his flight getting out of there was delayed because the plane was iced over. The rest of Nick's trip to Minnesota was fine and normal.
The news coverage on the winds continued all day. I am about 7 miles from the 102mph winds. It was windy where I was, but not nearly as bad. They reported that over 45,000 people were without power, and some still are. Roofs, fences and road signs all got bent and ended up in other people's yards and through house windows. Trampolines didn't stand a chance. I saw pictures of them in trees and one was on top of a house and they were mangled. The biggest thing were all the trees that fell over. They said over 1,000 trees fell over, roots and all. These were big trees too, 100+ year old! They fell on houses and cars busting windows and making big dents. They showed trees in the cemetery that were near head stones fallen over taking the head stones with them. That is kind of a disturbing image. There were a lot of trees that fell and snapped power lines. Power poles were snapped too. One lady had the power lines land on her house and it caught on fire. Semi trucks were not allowed on the roads because they would just tip over. I know of at least 5, but heard there were more. The freeways were closed for a period of time, but they are open and things are going well.
We used to live right where all this was happening and I am so glad we weren't in the middle of it.
Today, Nick has ice practice this afternoon. Tomorrow and Sunday he will be racing. I will post results as I see them.
