After our wintery ice storm at the beginning of April, we had a different kind of ice in the late afternoon of April 14th.
Eliza and I were in Viroqua about to leave violin lessons, and Tate was at work at the library in Westby.
I received a message from Blake asking where I was and saying I needed to get home FAST.
We all knew that storms were a huge possibility for late that afternoon/early evening – and so I knew why he was saying that.
Being part of a trucking and road construction family means that you will always know the weather forecast!!
Eliza and I ran out of the church we were at, and started toward Westby to pick up Tate.
The sky was ominous!!
I messaged Tate that he needed to tell his boss that there was a storm coming and I was picking him up early.
And I told him to be ready to jump into the van so we could keep driving!!
It started to rain before we were home.
It started to rain VERY heavy and big rain drops right before we turned onto our road.
It started to HAIL right as we got to the driveway (going WAY too fast, by the way!!) and into our garage.
We jumped out of the van and ran inside, apologizing to the boys, who both had vehicles on the driveway that were now getting pounded with hail.
I kept saying, “What in the world!! What is happening??? Oh my goodness!!! What in the world!!”
The hail was so big, so loud, and we knew it was doing so much damage.
The storm lasted a long time.
I have mostly video footage of it, and the hail went on for FIFTEEN minutes!
Soon after it was over, we were outside checking things and also reaching out to our friends and loved ones to make sure everyone was ok.
This storm was very isolated to central Westby.
We had several friends who rode it out tucked in a ball on the floors of their vehicles with all of their vehicle windows blown out.
It was SO unsettling for us – and I cannot imagine how scared they must have been.
There was SO much damage.
Our friends had so much more damage than we did – especially to their vehicles.
The hail was larger in the downtown area – and if a vehicle had been sitting outside, the windows were blown.
Thankfully both the boys vehicles windows were all still intact!
They do have hail dents all over their vehicles though.
Our siding was damaged, along with a window on the one side of the house, several outside doors, our grills, and (as we found out later) all of our string lightbulbs had been broken.
Thankfully our roof survived!!
It is a steal roof with fabricated metal shingles – that thing is TOUGH!
Downtown Westby was a mess!
This first photo is of a business in Westby and pretty much what all of Westby looked like.
Later that evening I walked outside to take those photos of the sky and it was like nothing had happened.
Our insurance adjustor came to assess the damage of our home, and let me just say, you get what you pay for.
We were blessed to receive a check to replace the siding on our entire home, that one window, the doors, and even the grill covers.
We have a good insurance company!!
This has given us the opportunity to think about the color of our home!
Chad did this for me one afternoon – so I could see if I would rather have white vertical siding.
He entered the photo I took of our house into Chat GPT, asked for the changes, and this is what we got!
Since then I have seen this house that was just redone in town and really like the dark color too!
But ultimately my inspiration photo is the second one!
I told Blake he will have to decide because I cannot cope with this huge decision, ha, ha!
I bet we end up with white vertical siding.
Time will tell!!
I think that is about enough ice for this year, don’t you???
Crazy weather!!
How great is it to know the One who controls it all??
Goodness, I am so thankful to trust and believe in our Sovereign Lord!!
There is no better way to live out our lives here on this temporary earth!!
“Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.” Psalm 115:3
