sandie99
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Wish it, dream it, do it - inspite the pain!
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Finland
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My dear friends,
I just got back from our summer cabin. This journey was supposed to be a relaxing holiday, but turned out to be something totally different. Me and mom were nearly killed.
2.50am on Friday,I woke up to mom's voice. I heard storm wind, heavy rain and thunder. I saw lightning flashes, although the bed room curtain was down. Mom turned the electricity off, and within a minute, we heard the loudest bang - the whole cabin was hit. For the next 20 to 30 minutes we were afraid, terrified and shaken. I prayed that God would keep us, our close ones and the cabin from harm's way, if possible. Mom was sure that the roof would collapse any moment. The storm went on and on and loud bangs, crashing sounds, thunder, wind and rain continued what seemed like a small eternity.
It was closer to 4am, when mom was sure that it was all over. My first thought was: I'm alive! We're alive! Mom dared to raise the curtain up. The first sight was scary: all we could see was fallen trees. The same story continued from all the windows, which were, all fine. Our wooden clock, which had been on dad's family for a century, was hit and it was broken. One painting had fallen off and the door was hard to open (and close), but that was all that happened inside the cabin. The outside was a different story.
We went to the balcony. It was wet, all the stuff were flown away or somewhere else. Huge branches were all around and huge birch tree was laying on the roof. It wasn't the only one: the main cabin was hit by 5 huge birch tree all together and 9 more had just missed it. Neighbor's pine tree's parts were in front of the cabin.
There were 2 huge pine trees on the parking lot - on the very same spot where mom usually leaves our car. But the car was wet and dirty, but unharmed. 5 threes were on our path to parking lot, 2 more blocked our way to the road.
Our lawn was now filled trees, branches and leaves. Storage building got 4 trees, the outside rest room had one on top of it. Sauna cottage was, again, unharmed, but 4 trees had just missed it and one, which almost fell, but was still standing, would have destroyed it.
Right after the storm ch came to visit. I drank a can of energy drink and then I took 65 pictures with my mobile phone's camera for the insurance company at 5am. We had breakfast and went to see if our neighbors were alive at 7.30, and later most of them came to see our cabin and backyard. It was clear that our place was hit the hardest.
We called the same man who had helped us in the past with all kinds of building works. He called few men he knew and those fellows came to help us with their motor saws. We called the insurance company and I reported to Esa that we survived. Then mobile phone connections failed completely. The power was out and didn't return the whole time we were there.
The guys helped us with the trees from 2pm to 11.30 pm and they even got the fire department to help with two trees, which were most dangerous ones. The fire men looked at the cabin and asked me: "Is it true that nobody died? That cabin was clearly properly build, because it would have collapsed like house of cards otherwise." They couldn't believe, that our car was also unharmed. They estimated that one of the trees weighted 300 kilos alone and there were 5 on the roof...
We worked hard on Friday and Saturday. We managed to get all the trees away from the roof and cleared a path to sauna cabin. There's still a lot to do, but this is a good start. There's a silver lining to every story: we will have enough of wood to warm up sauna's oven and the fire place even for my grand kids!
We were truly blessed, protected and witnessed series of miracles on Friday morning, that's all I can say. We came so close of dying that it's clear that me and mom both are still meant to do a lot of things. I still have lack of sleep and after shock is going on and my head's been acting up the whole day. It's no wonder... Luckily I've been able to sleep, because on Friday evening, all I could see was falling trees each time I closed my eyes.
The storm got a name Asta. It's a woman's name and on that Friday all Astas were celebrating their name day. From now on, that name will remind me of Friday, July 30th, 2010. I will never forget that storm. Our cabin's roof and door, the rest room and the pier can be prepared, the lawn will look like a lawn after a couple of years, but what else the storm did, that is much more difficult to tell. I do know that my faith in God has been strong, but it's now much stronger. I know that I'm physically and mentally much more stronger than I could have imagined. We know which neighbors and cabin friends we can rely and trust on.
So far, my reactions have been very practical: trees and branches are down, let's move them and so on. Within time the emotional reaction will appear. I've been too busy and too shocked to cry, but I saw macho men wiping tears when they saw the destruction. I've never been that scared in my life, but then again, Asta storm was the worst storm which has ever hit the area where our cabin is located. The locals, who have lived nearly 80 years, told us that they have never seen anything like it. I can agree and we all have one wish: that nothing similar will ever happen.
Wishing you all PF days,
Sanna
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Friday's Asta storm nearly killed me (Read 2782 times)
