STORMY SEASON

It has been a very stormy summer.  I don’t know if I’ve heard for sure, but it feels like an El Nino year, when the warm current of water in the Pacific Ocean has shifted, causing a change in the jet stream and affecting weather all over the world.

The last El Nino year that I know of for sure was 1998.  That was the year of the Great Tornado that swept across our area, wiping out several places just a mile south of our homestead, then roaring to St. Peter, devastating that community.  That same summer we had a storm with 100 mph winds that toppled giant trees in the area.  We lost a big maple tree in our yard that time.  That summer we were in the basement many times as threatening storms charged overhead.

This summer we’ve had a lot of storms too.  I was driving home from dropping my son at his summer job at Interlochen, MI, when we ran into terrible storms only an hour from home.  We spent close to an hour in a Casey’s gas station waiting for it to pass, watching torrents of water pour down.  The tornado sirens kept sounding, over and over.  One group came into the station saying lightening hit a transformer right by them and great bolts of electricity were bouncing all around.

The worst one we weathered so far (pun intended) was the end of June.  The radio reported a tornado sighted just a few miles from us.  I was in the basement with several of the children while dear hubby and a couple of the older offspring were gawking at the roiling clouds.  Suddenly, they come charging down the basement steps hollaring, “Get in the cellar!” and we all dived in.  Our cellar is typical of an almost-century-old home: dirt floor, full of ancient jars and cans, and, of course, the resident spiders with their hoary, dusty webs.  Most of my children refuse to even step into this creepy cave, so nine bodies charging in all at once was full of shrieks and squeals.

As we huddled in the middle of this space, trying to keep from touching any of the disgusting furry things on the walls, the littlest member of our family was sobbing, the next youngest was clinging as tightly as he could.  I was praying audibly as were a couple of the other members of our family.  Our resident teen animal lover had rescued the two kittens that had been born on the porch so they wouldn’t get blown away, and had wrapped them in her t-shirt.  Other than the prayers, it was silent as we listened to the storm pass overhead.

One little window was our only view of what was happening outside.  The weeds that grew outside that window were thrashing around, bending to the ground, the sky was an eerie color.  Then we began hearing things hitting the house.  It sounded like they were right about our heads, on the floor above.  The wind beat against the house and it rained in torrents.  We huddled together tightly, wondering if our house would still be standing when we emerged from this spidery refuge.

Finally, the sky grew lighter and the wind eased up.  It was still raining, but the worst was passed, so we trudged up the steps to see what had happened.  Thankfully, we had no broken windows or serious damage to our house.  However, the strong wind and rain had succeeded in pouring into our two rooms where we’d just finished putting in wooden floors!  Needless to say, the first order of business was mopping up the water!

Fearless Father went to take a look outside and found hailstones as big as golf balls.  There were numerous tree branches down, both large and small.  Half of our dead apricot tree was on the ground (good riddance!) and the middle of the willow tree had its branches stripped out.  There were leaves plastered against the north side of the house. But all in all, we were relieved to see the damage was as light as it was.

Then we noticed a squad car on the highway at the end of our road, blocking traffic going east.  All the normal traffic flow was going past our house.  And there were pick-ups hauling big livestock trailers away from the dairy barn south of us.  Fearless Father again took it upon himself to investigate, and drove down to talk to the state patrol trooper.  It turns out that trees and electrical lines were down in the nearby town, and the dairy barn had its roof torn off so they were evacuating the cows.

Just east of the dairy barn was significant tree damage; big trees broken off or uprooted.  Amazingly, by the hand of protection from the Lord, we had escaped this kind of damage.  The corn and soybean fields near us looked stripped bare.  Just north of our house, the fields were devastated.  They never recovered the rest of the summer, while those east of us look like they’ll still have a yield of some kind.

We did end up having to put new shingles on our roof, which was an adventure all its own!  One day two vans full of dark-skinned, Spanish-speaking men drove in our driveway.  Without scaffolding, elevators to carry shingles to the roof, or hydraulic lifts, these dozen or so men stripped the old shingles off and put new ones on in two days.  It was quite an operation.   There are many, many homes getting new roofs and siding this summer.  On every block there are two or more homes with construction signs in front.  I wonder how long it will be before some of them get their roofs repaired, and am thankful ours is done.

The rest of the summer, thunderstorms have been frequent, but they often passed us to the south.  Northern Iowa has been pounded all summer with one deluging rain after another.   I remember many summers when we went weeks without any significant rain…maybe that was just last summer!  And now, this summer, we’ve had more rain than we know what to do with.   We went so many summers without much rain, I remember standing on the porch watching the rain come in sheets and trying to remember when I’d last seen that kind of precipitation.

This past week, Ames, IA, has been flooded and their drinking water contaminated.  My oldest son graduated from Iowa State in Ames, so we are familiar with the town.  Two small creeks that run through the town were overwhelmed by the 15″ of rain that fell in three days.  Can you imagine?

As we watch this bizarre weather pattern, I am reminded that as out-of-control as things seem, our God is still in control.  We may not understand His ways, but He sits on the great eternal throne, and He rules in the affairs of men.  None of this is a surprise to Him.  It is a good time to learn to cling tightly to Him in the midst of the storms.  He has promised to be our refuge and high tower in the storm.