We get serious thunderstorms in our state for much of the late summer season.
It’s not rare to get a tornado warning and be forced to grab the kids and run down to the basement to seek shelter.
I wish this wasn’t something that my kids have to deal with, considering how traumatizing it can be. At the same time, is it any better with hurricanes? If your home is looking like it might get a direct hit from a category 5 storm, the aftermath of that devastation is as bad or worse. In any event, we simply have to take as many precautions as we can. We have a strong roof that was installed a few years ago, and we also have storm rated windows. I have all of the trees closest to the house trimmed so we don’t have to worry about a large branch breaking off and damaging the house. Even with all of our precautions, we still run into issues regularly. Last week we had an insane thunderstorm and several tornadoes touched down a few miles from our neighborhood. I thought I had all of the trees trimmed, but I suppose I missed a branch. During heavy winds, the branch snapped off from the trunk and barely missed the edge of our roof. Instead of damaging the house, the large branch came right down onto our HVAC condenser. We had to call the heating and cooling company and have them send out someone to rebuild the condenser from the ground up. They source the same parts used in the original condenser, get a large enough enclosure, and then they assemble it onsite. It’s surprisingly cheaper than buying a brand new condenser from the manufacturer.