and things went downhill from there

atara and I took the camera along when we went out for brunch yesterday so that we could get some shots of the damage following Saturday's pair of storms.  Aside from getting our sunflowers knocked over, we came away fairly unscathed.

We got some reasonably dramatic pictures, but there were a few that we didn't get shots of either.  All of these shots are from south of our place, but to the north of our house there were trees down on houses (though the houses looked mostly undamaged), trees down on cars, and in some cases large trees that had been completely uprooted and overturned.

If you look closely at the second picture from the bottom in her journal, you'll notice that there is a power line running through the remains of that tree.  I feel badly for the trees - most of the ones we saw were split down the middle, or snapped in half like toothpicks.  I doubt that the majority of the damaged ones will survive, and though the city tends to replace downed trees, they are not replacing elms with elms.  Eventually this city is going to lose its elms through attrition (either through disease or wind), and it just won't be the same without those stately trees.  I doubt it will all happen in my lifetime, but the thought still saddens me a bit.