Hurricane Beryl was an Univited Guest and a Tree-Breaking Witch

Hello from Southeast Texas! We had an unexpected and unwelcome guest on Monday, Hurricane Beryl, who didn’t bring wine and/or flowers but instead wreaked havoc, wrestled with trees (and won) and stole our power, which will be out for days, and days, and days. She didn’t even have the courtesy to do it in a month in which the “feels like” temp is less than 100℉. Beryl was no lady. That’s our driveway below.

Don’t get me wrong—we are very blessed to have avoided major damage to property, humans or pets—and have so much empathy for those who are truly suffering. But it is becoming a little repetitious, this high-winds-big-storm, terrifying shelter-in-place moments/hours, lost-power thing. You may remember that I whined about it a couple of weeks ago, in the aftermath of several other uninvited storms.

Beryl was a tree-breaking witch. Below are just a few pics from right around our house (within ¼ mile). I think she probably felled over 100 trees in our neighborhood, several of which fell on power lines. Each of our next-door neighbors had trees break power lines, and our next-door neighbor had one smash his truck to smithereens.

And now, the aftermath plays out, as it always does, with press conferences by politicians saying virtually nothing but using a lot of words; much more helpful online groups sharing information about where to get gas or bagged ice, where the nearest cooling shelter is located, whether or not trash pickup is happening because of all that rotted meat in the freezer, and if there are generators for sale anywhere; and vague text updates from the utility company about when power will be restored (“please be prepared for your power to be out for several days”). And the cleanup begins, with the growls of chain saws joining the incessant blaring of 100-decibel generator engines in a post-hurricane duet that anyone in the hurricane belt will sadly recognize as the sounds of summer, as noted in this haiku:

nothing screams “summer!”
more than the sounds of chain saws
and generators

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