There was wind in the forecast when we went to bed last night, with gusts predicted from 40 – 50 km/h ( 25 mph ) to 70 -80 km/h ( 49 mph ), along with an advisory to put all flying objects away. I first woke up about 3AM due to the wind noise. Colin got up about 4:30AM because of all the banging on the roof. He got dressed and went outside ( multiple times ) trying to find the source of the noise. From inside it sounded like the roof was humping up and down. The house shook with the highest gusts. Even in bed ( I was just laying there, not sleeping ) I could feel the house vibrate. At one point while Colin was outside checking on things ( we did have what we thought were secure objects go flying – the fence remained stable ) I heard a large crash. Three objects on display in the living room library had fallen and two are damaged. Sadly one belonged to my Mom.
It wasn’t precious but more sentimental. There were three notes inside that I found as I was clearing my parents home after they both had passed. They referred to our doxies. One said ” fat one likes tummy rubs”, written in my Mom’s shaky hand. I will keep it as is as yet another reminder of the year we are having mingled with the past.
Finally at 7AM Colin went to turn the furnace on and all we heard was loud metallic screeching. We make a great team. I, still in bed ( keeping warm ), told him to call Bree-LInk and they were here by 7:45AM.
While Manni was inside working on the furnace it was light enough for Colin to assess the outside. He found several shingles all over the place including in bushes a few homes over. The wind subsided and he went on the roof. He neglected to take photos but knew that the next step was roof repair. Time for me to man the phones. And man them I did, twice we had three phones ( 2 cell and 1 landline in use at the same time ).
Turns out that we needed a new furnace motor/fan.
Our neighbour two doors over had roof issues as well.
I called eight roofing companies. Only two returned my call. I went with the first guy as he promised to come this afternoon. He told me that he had cancelled all construction roofing jobs so that the entire company could go out and do repairs.
Meanwhile it turns out that there were others here in the park that were affected. We have known this couple since we moved here in 2003. The entire roof of the add a room ( Arizona room ) flew off. You can see through the front door that it is all open to the the sky. You can also see that the roof to the main part of the home has been torn up as well. This was the worst damage that we are aware of. This home was broad side to the wind while we were nose on which gave us more support.
These are pieces of her roof strewn over the lake ice.
Several homes had roofing issues, someone had a broken window due to a flying object, they also lost their fence. The renter next door to us said that his RV shifted two inches because of the wind. We heard that an RV roof vent was found two blocks away and that it came from a 5th wheel here on our street. Apparently there is a hole in the roof. The owner lives somewhere in Alberta. They will be contacted.
There was only the one motor/fan in stock in all of the Okanagan. Otherwise we would have been without a furnace for a few days. The furnace installer checked the roof and the collar on the furnace vent is cracked. Did the storm have anything to do with the furnace break down or was it coincidence? A very well spent $900.00. So nice to be warm again.
At least we had a pretty view out the window. The snow stayed up high as it fell this morning.
Mother Nature was kind and give us this sunset.
The roofers arrived just as it was getting dark. They did the shingle replacement job and did a small repair on the furnace collar. They said that they had 5 or 6 more after us but they would not be able to do many more due to the failing light.
I choose the winery in Italy.
Who said that 2021 was going to be better ?
