I drove West to a buddy's house 90 miles away to take down a dead tree in his front yard yesterday afternoon. We had a bit of heavy rain there, but it's timing was good that we didn't get soaked. It took about 1 1/2 hr to get the tree down, cut up and cleaned up (there were 4 of us). I ran the saw, the others picked up pieces. Tony, the Dolmar 5100 worked great. The tree was a dead Maple about 16" DBH, around 40'-50' tall.

So, on the way home I decide to stop at Cabelas and get a few lures. I'm just about done and the phone rings. It's Mom. "Do you still have a roof on your barn?" What do you mean? (She didn't know I wasn't home.) "Didn't you have the wind and rain? Our generator is on and nobody has power. There's power poles down in Plymouth (the nearest town) one is on fire, trees are blocking the roads and they said we had 80 mph winds." What????? No, I'm in Hammond, I'm not home. "Oh, well when you get home let us know if everything is O.K."

Aw crap. I hurry up thru checkout and head for home. About 30 miles due west from home it starts to look like a war zone. Nobody has electric, trees are snapped off and laying everywhere. Starting in Valpariso as soon as I hit US 30, continuing on thru Wanatah, Hanna, Hamlet and finally I see the electric on right close to where I turn off to my place. On the way home I call my neighbor and he says "This is the first time I've had to go to the basement. The canopies that I had out for the party are trashed, there's limbs down all over the yard and my neighbor to the west had a tree from his yard break off and fall across the street. I don't know about coming in from the east, but from the west you can't get past the tree." Luckily he said I still have the roof on the buildings. WHEW!!

The whole way home there are trees snapped off, emergency crews and people are out cleaning up, it looks bad...... I come in from the east and don't see much wrong. Smaller branches are down, houses are O.K., and that tree that was blocking the road is already cut and pushed off the road. We had 5/8" rain. The lake house had the top of a big black locust tree break off and just miss the neighbors house, but no damage there either.

It looks like we just got hit by the southern edge of the storm. There was a tornado that formed to the east of here, but no fatalities.

storm photos

I drove on US 30 thru Wanatah and Hamlet to get to my place. The picture of the tree on N 600E is just down the street from my house.

Well, it's off to the lake house to do some cleanup.

I can't tell you how many time we've lucked out with bad storms and straight line winds coming thru that just miss us.

Glad to hear that things are OK.

Scott, I'm glad you and your parents are ok. I almost hate to ask, but did you get any rain with all the winds? I know you need it.

Thanks guys. I had 5/8" rain. 10 miles south of me had almost an inch. Mom & Dad, 7 miles east, had 1/4" but Dad said the wind was blowing so hard that the rain was horizontal and none was landing in their rain gauge.

I stopped at Cabelas specifically to look for Jackall soft plastics. Ended up walking out with almost $50 of lures.

Whew!!!!

Oh yeah. I had about an hour to think about how I was going to get up on the barn roof with a big tarp to cover it all, then realized the barn roof is too steep to walk on. Could I get a lift, no, the places are all closed. That's what insurance is for, right?

Luckily I didn't need to worry about it.

2 bags?

Wait until I get you hooked on JDM lures. You'll need a part time, part time job.

Al, sorry about all the damage. Glad you made it thru ok...

That sounds too close....glad things turned out ok. I watched the storms on radar, but they were way north of us.

Nothing that bad east of you here. You seem to get hit harder than us with the wind.

Which ones are those? I couldn't find JDM lures on there.

One bag, and a small one at that.

I'm used to buying these for trolling for Wahoo.....

Braid Marauder

Since I seem to be going to Wisconsin a bit more now when the ice is NOT on the lakes, I'm starting to fish for Muskies.

I drive right past Rollie & Helens, so stopping in there is almost mandatory.....
http://www.muskyshop.com/modules/cart/products.php/page/22/id/83/name/AmmaBamma

Cecil, that storm seemed to follow right along US 30.

That seems to be the case most of the summer.

Japanese Domestic Market. It's finally getting easier, and cheaper, to get the non-imported lures on this side of the ocean. The quality on most of the Japanese fishing lures is outstanding.

Glad you're OK Scott. Wish you got more rain though...

I took a walk in the woods Sunday evening. Only lost the top of one Oak, maybe 18" dia. So, that will need cutting up. Last evening I pulled down the top of a Black Locust that was hung up in a neighbors back yard. He's got 2 small boys and doesn't have a chainsaw nor anything to deal with the trees or branches. Everything now is small enough that he can move it to a pile and burn it. The boys can play in the yard now without having to worry about something falling on them. There's still two smaller trees that are being held up by other trees, and we'll have to take those down before they land on his house. But, they are held pretty solidly, and they are only 8" or so in diameter.

I still hear chainsaws at all hours of the day, and yesterday I drove to Valpariso to meet a friend for dinner. There's still a lot of storm damage that needs to be cleaned up, I'm guessing that it'll take a week or longer in the area around Wanatah. I heard that there were fields of corn that was just laid flat by the winds. Hopefully the farmers have insurance because I don't know how they'd get the corn up off of the ground. Some rows of corn that were next to US30 that were still standing were just stalks with an ear of corn on them - all the leaves were stripped away in the wind.

The county maintenance crews are still busy, there are areas where the trees were just cut back to the white lines on the edge of the roads right after the storm and are still laying there. If someone isn't paying attention they'll hit the end of the tree trunk.