FLASH, BANG, WALLOP !!!

Hello Terra, how frightening that must have been for you ! But...you now have met neighbours who you previously didn't know and may even form new friendships too ! The day that happened , we had the torrential rain and had recently installed a 190 litre water butt where the down pipe has always been running into a silly little bin and no drain either ! The rain came down so hard that the recess there flooded nearly as high as the conservatory step, which is very high and the water gushed out of the butt like a huge waterfall ! The garden in that area looked like a lake , but luckily it is on a slope away from the house and it soon cleared away. How weird is our weather at the moment ! I'm pleased you are alright and that no one was hurt.

Pleased it is getting sorted out at last, suppose the engineers would be so busy in places that they can only get to one at a time. like every other business they have cut down and cut down and no people available sometimes to do the repairs. Not nice though being without communication aids. Glad you have met up with some lovely neighbours, its nice when you meet and get to know others in the neighbourhood. Thankfully no one was hurt and other things can be replaced, wonder if house insurance covers things like lightening. Good that you can blog again Terra :O)

Hi Rose ...
Yes, waterbutts were full and overflowing !
And, yes ... some nice people not too far away !

Thanks Olive ...
Agree with you ... engineers busy after the storms, and less staff to do these tasks. I have only basic insurance, but I've been looking in Tesco at the price of indoor phone sets, and I reckon I can buy one of those :o)

Seems that the repairman is doing it the old fashion way instead of using a hydraulic cherry picker. Looks like the same type of storm that wrecked my garden and brought down two trees.

Hi Loosestrife ..
Sorry to read that your garden was wrecked ... this was the most fierce lightning I've ever experienced.

Sorry about the explosions TT and their effect on you and neighbours. The heavy rain tended unseat the ridge tiles on a low roof over the kitchen. The old roofer came and reseated them all on fresh cement in between huge blasts of heavy rain. I feel a bit safer now. It is really strange weather TT.

What a dreadful storm :o( it must have been frightening but I'm glad to know nobody was injured.
It's nice to have kind people living near. You only seem to hear of the bad ones wherever you go these days. It's nice that some people pull together in times of difficulty.

I find it worrying that no repair people appeared for several days, and then only did so after you phoned them :( I think that is bad.
However, it's good that they came eventually, and are getting things sorted out.

It seems you're going to be busy answering those emails lol :D
but you must feel relieved to be back on line, and have at least one phone working in your house.

These storms have been incredibly fierce, Terra that sounds awful so pleased you are all ok......we had torrential rain thanks to Bertha then wednesday I think one of those funnel cloud mini tornado things, thsnkfully could only see it and no damage caused, then last night the rain like your photo......thankfully no flash & crash......

Hi Dorjac ..
that's good your ridge tiles are safe now !

Hello Hywel ..
Yes ... I missed the internet much more than I expected ... so it was a great relief to be online again !

Pam, those storms were wild and unpredictable !
Glad you had no flash and crash ;o)

That must have been very exciting! And it's just as well you made that phone call Terra! Good to see that everything is getting back to normal and that you made some new friends in the process! :) x

Hello Karen ..
Yes ... new friends are good ..
and this summer, 'normal' has changed in many ways ... x

Its wonderful to hear you have met nice neighbours in view of what's happened before. Some good can come out of most things! My father did consulting work on lightning protection and instilled into me that you should always unplug electrical appliances in a thunderstorm - it can save a lot of damage if you are unlucky.

It seems odd that BT didn't know about the dangling cables, they are usually so on the ball about that - what a good thing you rang them.

I hope you have all recovered from what must have been a very frightening experience.

Glad to see you are now back with us Terra..I've just asked on your comment on my blog..so now I know! Lol..
How scary that must have been..it wasn't last Friday ,by any chance? I ask,because we were travelling back from Exmouth,and we hit storms and flash flooding around the Nottingham area,till we arrived at Wakefield,two hours delay,as there was also a junction closed near Sheffield,because of an accident..
apart from that,it was fine :o)
Lovely you met some nice neighbours,through it,which can only be good ..These things do bring people together in a good way ..:o)

Hi Sue and Sandra ...
It seems that lately everyone has experienced patches of stormy weather ... my TV was on throughout the storm ... at first it seemed to be just a hail storm, but then the lightning arrived all of a sudden ...

The family which helped me the most own two beautiful budgies .. which to me is an excellent recommendation. Lol.

I'm ashamed to say,we leave our TV on too,Terra,but I do unplug my laptop..Oh,that's nice ,meeting your neighbours with two of your favourite feathered friends..:o)

What an experience TT, but so pleased you have made new friends nearby, a gardener, a budgie owner too that is great, so good that from the storm and BT's slow response something positive has come, lovely to have you back on line needless to say :o)

We use the tv through the sattelite and pull the ariels out....and our phone lines, it blew the switch once!.....
don't think a normal phones a problem its because we have more than one line......

Hi TT i'm glad some good came out of that terrible day and you know you have friendly neighbors , the last time my computer man called he showed me which wires to unplug in the event of a storm to save any harm to the computer , I don't suppose that would be of any use if the phone lines are hit though !

Glad you got it sorted TT.... had some rain here but not been to bad.... id hate to be without phone or internet....

I almost clicked on 'I like' Terra because you make every incident interesting and and with a happy ending. Congratulations on your enterprise in getting out there not only to help yourself but others too. I think those other families would have been glad that someone made the effort. Well done. New friends for you and the your nearest and dearest.

I agree with Scotsgran. Exciting with a happy ending. No ghosts or murders tho'. :o)

Thanks Neena, Pam, Amy, Holly and Linda ..
When lightning is forecast, I must try to remember to unplug as much as possible !

Hi Scotsgran ...
Yes. It was good to meet some nice neighbours from other roads.
With blogs, I often click 'like' when I like the photos and style of writing, even if the story is alarming ...
In fact, for me, the storm experience resulted in far more good news than bad news !

Terra, so sorry to hear of your experience. Delighted to know that there are still "communities" around that care for each other. Sounds like you had good IT support from John. ...... Handy for any future hiccups! ... lol

Hi Alan ..
yes.. John and family are very helpful ... and any time I visit them, there is the added bonus of seeing their wonderful budgies ! Lol.

We have been experiencing some horrendous rainfall and heavy winds with the odd flash of lightning and could hear the thunder in the distance but nothing like you got Terra, although where my relatives live only 3miles down the road they had the really huge hailstones as well, its almost as though it went around our town, the garden has flooded a few times in the past couple of weeks but luckily it soon drained away, no lasting damage....
I'm pleased you have met some nice friendly neighbours Terra, although it would have been better under different circumstances, relieved for you all as it could have been so much worse.....

Incredible Terra ! We've had hardly any storms where I live in Oxfordshire unless I slept through them ! A few rain storms with sunshine in between. We seem to have our own 'mini climate' here as my ex used to say when he travelled to see me from MK, as he got closer to Witney the clouds cleared and the sun came out.My water butt is empty again so need some rain through the night to refill it. I'm glad you are ok and things are getting sorted.

Hi Sue and Nancy ..
My water butts are already empty again too ...
I bought a new set of house phones this morning ...
to replace the set damaged by the storms ...

Scary pages of small-print instructions !!
... not really sure where to start with them ... Lol.

Nice to see BT quickly repaired the telephone lines, TT - even if it did take a call from you to alert them to the damage!

Nice of your neighbour to help you with your Internet connection again. The man with the budgies seems to be a kind man. Perhaps you can have more contact with him & his garden. That may help you not feel so alone.

How are you getting on with your new phones? Have you mastered them yet?

Hello Balcony ...
I've taught myself the basics of the new phones ... and the other evening I even registered an unwanted caller entry on the Call Blocker !
I think learning the answerphone might take a bit longer !

Just like here happen, its really worse ... almost a month we have a disaster :-((( and maybe Philippines will be a WATERWORLD capital someday:-O

Hi Junna ..
Waterworld .. yes ..
the weather has such powers, doesn't it ..
and can happen so quickly :o(

i agree with you Terra , no one knows what will happen:-(

Good to meet new friends, so something good came from the storm, pleased nobody was hurt.

We had flash bang wallop overhead out of the blue the other day. ....that took the phones off too, gales and heavy rain yesterday getting on for 36 hours of rain now......ok thats enough......?

Gales and rain can do so much damage ... stay safe everyone !

Yes, Dotty, nice to meet new friends !