Friday, August 11, 2017 – Rain and Wind, Storm Damage Cleanup, Elder Witbeck’s Pickup Truck

Yesterday evening’s Microburst was very powerful and did a lot of damage all over Old Nauvoo.  The storm came in two waves. The first to hit was the microburst. It was short and powerful and dumped a half inch of rain in only 15 minutes. The wind, if not hurricane velocity, was close to it. The 15 minute microburst with its wind is what did all of the damage.

The second storm arrived a couple of hours later and dumped an additional inch of rain. It lasted most of the evening and did no new damage. This storm brought the rain the local farmers have been praying for. It has been too long since the local corn and soybean crops have received significant rain.

Sis. Johnson and I knew we would be on cleanup detail all day and we were. But there was so much damage, the bosses at FM pulled extra help from other departments to go out and pick up, load and haul debris.  Sis. Johnson and I were out with Elder Cantwell and Elder Kyle Johnson all day picking up downed branches, limbs and logs. We completely filled our large trailer and made five trips to the burn pile.  That’s a record for us.

There were also other vehicles and crews with dump trucks; a large trailer and flatbed truck with their crews cutting down, picking up and hauling off the storm damage. The chain saws were runner all day and FM’s wood chipper never stopped. There was a lot to clean up.

 This morning one of the chain saw crews finally got the last log off of Elder Witbeck’s truck. The cab was completely crushed except for a small little opening where the windshield used to be. Elder Witbeck was able to get the driver’s side door open, the truck started and he drove the pickup all the way to the FM compound scrunched down inside the crushed cab looking through that little opening of a windshield. Amazing.