The Storm

 Some storms came through this area last Monday. We got a good soaking of rain with VERY strong wind gusts. I enjoyed listening to the thunder and watching the lightning. We got lots of water for the yard and nitrogen in the air for the garden. I suspect that’s why things look especially lush in the yard this year. (We had 45 day drought last year.)

Tuesday morning we received a few texts from the tenants of one of our properties telling us about a power outage, downed trees mostly from the neighbors to the west, damage to the siding of the house, and broken windows. Chaos!! 

 I have been busy, mostly on the phone, all week!

This last picture is of the remains of the huge tree that caused 90% of the damage. 

First the electrical issues needed to be addressed- not an easy task especially if there was a downed wire under all that mess. I found an electrical company that would come…emergency pricing , of course.  The mast had been knocked down and torn out of all the meters. While it was all fixed that day, the power was not restored until the following day.

Insurance adjuster came this morning… these things take time. He told me the roof looked good and the structural damage was minimal. I hope the insurance $$ will cover it all .

I found out that everything will be covered by our policy EXCEPT the tree mess! Michigan law states that the debris, even though it was the neighbor's tree, is the property owner's responsibility. What a pain! ...plus it will be expensive!

Storm damage is widespread and it was difficult to find people that would come and do the work.

I got a handyman to come and quote the work on the house. He can’t do it until the end of the week. 

Another man will come and clean up the tree mess on Wednesday. He charges by the hour but thinks he can get it done in a day. 

Window damage will be taken care of on Wednesday as well.  Two windows were broken.

I rented a dumpster.  My question is, how do I prevent the neighbor from dumping their tree mess in my dumpster? Their yard is a complete mess and they even had car damage!  I guess that we have some things to be thankful for.

One of my tenants usually has two motorcycles parked right where the tree landed. I had asked them to move them so a different project could be done there. They were moved the night before the storm. It was fortuitous!

That’s the long and the short of it for now. In spite of everything, I am thankful that no one got hurt and that everything can be repaired  before the next rain!