Storm damage

On April 27 of this year, East Tennesseans endured a series of horrible storms. Indeed, there were tornadoes in the area as well which is a somewhat rare occurrence in this part of the country.

The East Tennessee tornadoes were a part of the April 25-28 2011 Tornado Outbreak that killed 321 people across the country, according to the National Weather Service.

East Tennesseans took cover and waited for the storms to pass. And when the storms DID pass, we all emerged to find hail everywhere (and much damage to repair). The hail damage prompted a run on auto repairs and used car rentals. It also boosted the local economy as there was a summer filled with roof replacements, gutter repairs, debris removal and other associated upgrades on homes and business throughout the area.

I would love to see an economic impact study that would demonstrate how the business climate in the Southeast was affected by this work - building suppliers, motels and restaurants to feed and house seasonal workers, fuel sales for work trucks, etc. etc.

All of this work - some good to emerge from a lot of bad - was prompted by the April hail storm which did unprecedented property damage.

Yesterday, I noted one last result of those storms as our family came together to do one of our annual chores. We always know it is late October when it is time to rake leaves. After a dreary and rainy Friday, we planned to take advantage of Saturday’s glorious fall weather to do our first raking of the year

Normally, we have a ton of leaves because we have trees in yard and wooded areas that encircle our lot.

Yesterday, there were leaves to rake, but just not that many of them. Normally, it takes about three afternoon sessions to process all our leaves. But, this time, we did the bulk of them in one afternoon. One more mini-session and a final lawn mowing of the year will probably do it for this fall.

The reason: that same hail storm that knocked dents in cars and holes in rooves six months ago also knocked a bunch of the leaves off the trees. A good friend of mine, a forestry major in college, told me that the trees don’t add extra leaves in-season. What they have is what they have. Next year, they’ll re-set. But for now, this is it.

And we noticed how this year’s fall leaf collection is just much thinner as compared to past years.

I’m not complaining, mind you. It’s just one additional by-product of a truly historic event. And it’s one of those things I’m sure we’ll look back on when we do our ‘Year in Review’ for 2011 in a couple months.

JG

Originally posted 10/30/2011