Storm Stories - Damage Report

On Friday June 29, a storm ripped through the Mid-Atlantic States. It also hit our farm hard. Fortunately, we were not here to experience it. Farmer John, Coco and I were headed home from Wisconsin after spending a week with my family. We’d heard storm reports on the news and from Farmer John’s Mom and Dad. We knew we were coming back to a mess. This is what we saw when we crossed the bridge:

We had many limbs down in the yard around the house. Our electric pole with the transformer had snapped and was lying on the ground. The limbs and transformer had pulled down all the electric lines. The main line from the right-of-way was on the lane, the lines from the house to the cabin and barn were snapped and on the ground. We had to climb around and through the lines to get to the house.

Surprisingly, no damage was done to the house, besides a few things that had been blown off the porches. The cabin, building and upper building also survived without damage. Of course, we didn't have power or water. 

The trees and barn sustained the most damage. The large Chestnut trees near the barn lost some huge branches. The tin on the barn roof was loose in some places and missing in others. 

The largest section that was torn off created quite a skylight. We were thankful that it wasn't above all the hay. There was very little water damage done to the hay. 

Pieces of the barn roof littered the yard, along with all the tree debris. 

After Farmer John went to check on the cattle (who were all fine) he reported lots of trees and limbs down in the woods. Sections of fence were damaged, however the down trees created a natural fence to keep the cattle in. We lost some chickens, but the remaining ones were fine - just out of water. 

We're thankful that there wasn't more damage done to the buildings or animals. Currently most of the tree debris is cleared from the yard, and the barn roof is fixed. Overall, the damage was bad, but not as bad as it could have been.