Storm coming in

Tornado watch until 3:00 a.m. tonight, and a big, big red line coming our way. Based on what I see on animated radar, we're likely gonna tango with that red blotch down on the VA/NC line. Place your bets folks, place your bets. Now duck and cover. (Image courtesy of weatherunderground.com, my fave weather site, despite annoying expanding banner ads.)

It wasn't but a week ago that Surry felt the bite of 10-ish tornadoes (potato/potahto, tornado/tornahdo, let's call the whole thing off). A quick scan of Dominion Virginia Power (dom.com) shows the outages down there are fixed, but you can see the outages starting to pop up around South Boston and Charlottesville. I'll post an updated outage map in the a.m. just for comparison's sake.

All of this takes us back to September 2003 and our dear friend Isabel, who wreaked havoc on our fair city and then headed up north to Canada. We lost power for 10 days, which was not fun on a number of fronts. We now have a gas generator for exactly that kind of event, though we've been lucky for a few years to not have to use it (no ice storms, no intensely bad storms).

All of this leads to the good side/bad side of storms when one's house is in the forest. First and most importantly, you're pretty much on your own with the exception of neighbors. Two, the possibility of a tree blocking your driveway is a very real possibility. Three, the possibility of multiple trees blocking your road is a very real possibility. Four, you're still on your own.

The good sides would appear to be: You get to go buy a REAL chainsaw, not just some plug-in electric one. A...

[the first rumble of serious thunder has been heard in the distance. Must save frequently.]

...recent experience in Hanover was when a windstorm knocked a tree onto one of the local roads. In short order, multiple passers-by were out of their trucks, many with chainsaws in hand, making short work of the tree. I am told they live for this kind of stuff.

Good point #2, the power lines in our neighborhood are buried in the ground. And while that's not a guarantee against losing power, it would seem to eliminate the "tree took down my power lines" scenario, and the "live power lines draped on my car, may need to work from home today"

Good-ish point #3, even though trees may surround us, they can also deflect one another, so one falling in the general direction of the house may be stopped by another tree in its path of inertial destruction. Where we live now, the only thing stopping a tree branch from falling to the ground is (a) power lines or (b) your car.

It's going to be wild when the first ice storm comes in or the first truly mighty oak falls in the forest, ripping up a huge swath of ground and exposing a massive hole where the roots used to be. And while we may lose a treehouse in the process, it's good to be reminded that we are guests in nature's yard, and not the other way around.

Next time: Getting (re)oriented in the woods.