So... early Friday morning I was pulled from my sleep at about 2:00 a.m. by horribly loud thunderstorm.

One of the loudest t-storms I've ever heard. And from what I've seen, nowhere does t-storms as well as the midwest.

Outside of my alarm clock blinking 12:00 when my cellphone went off, I didn't think anything more about it, until I stepped outside to go to work.

This was in the bed of my truck. Picture snapped after I removed it:


And on the hood:


So, I started to look around. New neighbor - just closed on the house this week. This was after some work was done - half of a tree landed on the Rolla:


The rest of my yard:



Brand new street sign, just got it last week:


So, I decided to take my wife to work (she works at the University of Northern Iowa, which it turns out was right in the path of the worst of the storm). I couldn't get pics of the worst affected areas, as the streets were impassable, and I don't own a chainsaw (plus, I had to be at work soon).

Some pics of the trip:

Whoops, have to go a different way. Road closed:


UNIdome in the background. Hard to see, but this is the practice football field and outdoor track field. Note the goal post.


And some good old-fashioned tree carnage:








I guess what we had was a downburst. I've heard estimations that at the center, the straight-line winds were about 130 MPH. My truck has some scratches and dings on it that it didn't before.... but compared to the numerous crushed cars I've seen, I think it fared pretty well.

 

probably should move out of iowa! i heard theres only one city there ne ways! lol

 

oh yes classic midwest carnage heh. Nothing better than some nasty green skys, large hail and trees flying around. I always liked going out after storms to check the damage

 

lol glad to har everything went ok with u.. and that was lucky for ur truck!

that last pic was a close cal.. would be very ugly to see it fall over the house...

 

No doubt. Find me a job, and I'm gone. :-)

 

that's intense

 

I miss Iowa t-storms.. makes me want to move back..Would not mind getting stationed in the midwest at all..

good to see your truck is ok though!

 

I miss the midwest weather dearly.

 

^X100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0.. I hate germany's weather.. very RARELY t-storms and they are weak when it does.. just rains alot..

 

scary shyyaaattttt.
glad your truck wasn't bruised up too bad =)

 

atleast there was no baseball or softball size hail that would have left a mark lol

 

COOL!

That was some wicked damage. Those trees are huge!

 

Nice little storm you must've slept through lol

 

I love midwest (Iowa) storms. They suck if you get damage, and we've lost a total of nine trees since I've lived in Iowa.

But I love driving out in the country during storms to watch..my parents flip on me when I do though.

 

That is better than the flooding and tornadoes we had last year.

 

Oh yeah you guys got it bad last year..

 

Yep... we had a tornado a 1/2 mi. north of our house last year.... and pretty significant flooding.

We're actually battling flooding right now too. I "get" to go help my inlaws pull carpet up from the water they have coming up in their basement. Woo-hoo...

So - I just got the estimate back on repairs to the damage to my truck. $1800. Glad I have insurance. My agent is getting sick of seeing me though - this will put us over $15K in car insurance pay-outs in the last 5 years, and over 22K in total insurance.

 

this was after softball size hail, when my truck was totaled and I was at work...

 

Cody - that really sucks. Is that your current truck that was totaled? The DSG one? I guess I didn't realize that they totaled it out. I remember seeing pictures, and thinking that they did a really nice job.

We had hail like that two years ago - 7/17/07. My wife and I went to the grocery store, which is about 5 blocks from our house. We left my 6-year-old Civic in the street (incidentally, exactly where my truck was this time), and took her 5-week-old brand new CR-V to the grocery store.

As we were standing in the check-out line, we watched baseball sized hail come down. 5K+ worth of damage - nearly the entire car needed repainting. Ouch.

 

except your truck wasn't totaled...