A Great and Powerful Wind

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind.  

~I Kings 19:11

There was a storm over Lake Michigan on Thursday evening.  For us on the lakeshore, there wasn't any rain in the forecast, let alone a severe weather alert.  Yet in a matter of seconds, the winds from this storm out over the Lake did incredible damage.

All it took was one microburst to flatten our gazebo.  It's the second one that has been trashed by high winds since we've lived here!

Although we were also without power for 24 hours, we considered our property unscathed, compared to homes over closer to the Lake...

Church members who live in this area are still without power this morning.

The rest of these photos are all on the grounds of the Kemper Center, where our church rents the chapel on Sundays. Papa Rooster estimates more than 15 trees were lost on its grounds alone, and hundreds of trees were down, along with light posts, telephone poles and live wires, all over Kenosha! And all in a matter of minutes.

Those are the chapel doors in the background.

This is a walkway between the chapel and Ambrose Hall.  You can see the copper roof has been ripped up and folded over like a rug!

Here's the back view of the same walkway, with the missing section of roof.  A branch from this tree broke through the door there.

Another tree hit the Faulkner building, which we have used for church suppers and meetings.  The far right tree fell into another tree, so fortunately didn't do any damage to Ambrose Hall.

Another view of the tree that fell on Faulkner, plus another giant down closer to the shore.  The grounds of Kemper will sure look different after this.

As of this morning, there is still no power in the Kemper Center, so we are hoping to do an outdoor service on the grounds on Sunday.