Tropical Storm Hermine

Wow...did she pack a punch!  My husband and I were out of town last week and didn't get home until Monday. We were very busy with family over the weekend and didn't pay much attention to the weather.  It wasn't until we got home that we realized a tropical storm was quickly heading our way, barely giving us enough time to secure the patio and pool furniture.  And overnight Monday, Tropical Storm Hermine hit us hard. 

It was crazy.  We've lived in this house for more than five years and we've never been through a storm like this one.  The wind was unbelievable.  All the windows on the back side of the house (and I have a lot of very tall windows) were shaking like I've never seen.  I swear there were wind gusts of up to 40-50 MPH and that went on for a number of hours.  And the rain was relentless.  When I checked the rain gauge yesterday morning, we had received more than 5 1/2 inches since Monday night...and more rain was expected. 

When what appeared to be the main punch of the storm had passed (and in between downpours), I quickly went outside to see how my garden weathered the storm and I was pleasantly surprised.  The pepper plants were seriously blown around as were the young broccoli, cabbage and Brussels sprout transplants; but all in all, everything  came through OK.  Take a look.

 

Wednesday morning I took a long, slow walk around the property (in between serious rain showers) to see if there were any downed trees, broken tree limbs, etc, but found no damage other than a bunch of ball moss scattered around and lots of small broken tree branches.  The wind also blew the wire cage away from my fig tree.  Not fatal, but it could have been more destructive than what it was.

Needless to say, I was pleased with what I found.  No major damage.  But it was pretty scary.  Thank God my sister was here at the house with me.  I'm not usually afraid of storms, but this one was actually pretty terrifying.   My wonderful husband was out of town (actually, he was sitting in an airplane on a runway waiting to fly to Houston).  It was not a pleasant experience for him either. 

When it was all over, Tropical Storm Hermine dumped almost seven inches of rain on us here in the hills of Boerne.  But the sun broke through Wednesday evening and the skies began to clear, blessing us with some incredible cloud formations.

Considering the damage this storm brought to many parts of South Texas, we consider ourselves quite lucky to have come through it relatively unscathed.  There is sunshine predicted for the balance of the week and I'm sure all the new transplants and tiny seedlings in my garden will be thankful for the storm, the rain that it brought and the sunshine yet to come.  Thank you, dear Universe.