April 19th brought a pretty big storm. We spent about 45 minutes in the basement. The kids never even woke up as we hauled them to the basement and then back to bed once the winds died down. I hate storms that come after dark. This one hit about 945.
Dad called about 1030 to say that he lost two barns at the house.
The next morning a couple of guys from the Crawfordsville office and I made a tour of the county to inventory the havoc.
This is Dad’s concrete block barn, or what is left of it.
This one just collapsed in upon itself. This one housed mismatched stuff and junk. This barn has been here for over 65 years or as long as Dad can remember.
This is what is left of the big pole barn. This one has been here since I can remember. Dad said Grandpa Bernard built it so we know it has been there at least 38 years.
The wind just sheered off most of the posts.
And it took part of the barn, laid it in the yard and then blew off with the rest of it. These boards are planted so deep into the ground that you can’t even budge them.
Debris, tin and two by fours are strewn over 1 1/4 miles. It will be a while before the fields dry out enough to go and clean things up.
Trusses were laid down on mowers and tractors but the worst damage to any of them was a bent muffler stand pipe on the little blue Ford. The John Deere drove right out once the Bobcat lifted the truss. And then they were able to pull all of the other equipment out.
And this barn was not even touched. It’s back was to the wind, which we think saved it.
There was a plastic funnel laying on the ground right here and it never moved. Crazy. There was a family of raccoons living in an old file cabinet. They were NOT happy once the cleaning crew started moving their “home”.
This is the view I found at 430 pm after taking the previous pictures at about 930 am. There were about 20 guys there helping clean up and they had cleared the pole barn completely. The concrete floor was swept clean and all the debris was piled ready for pick up.
And as Uncle Gerald said: “You know it’s a big storm when it blows in a dozer!” Now that’s funny!
I guess Nanny cried when she came over and saw it. The old homestead has changed/lost a lot over the years. It is slowing blowing away, literally.
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