Unbelievable wind today

As I type this, I'm pretty sure that the Manor is being hit by almost constant 40-50 mph gusts. And about 5 minutes ago there was a blast that had to be 70+*. The walls were vibrating. Trees are swaying dangerously, and one very large red oak just crashed from one neighbor's yard into another, just missing their house. We just got power back an hour ago, having lost it about 1AM. Spooky times here.


*The one and only time I was in wind so fierce was one summer travelling across the country with my folks on vacation. It was 1969, and we were surrounded by high winds and tornadoes in Eastern Wyoming. After battling furious winds for a couple of hours, my father finally stopped us at a little gas station in the old cowboy town of Medicine Bow, (ironically enough, that was the town where "The Virginian" western was supposedly situated). We had our travel trailer with us and just parked by the side of the one gas station in town, (it still had glass tanks on top of the pump with a gravity feed!!!). That night the trailer was buffeted, I can tell you. It's a wonder we got any sleep at all. The next morning we took off during a break in the weather. My father later confessed to me that he'd stopped driving when he looked in his side mirror and had seen one set of trailer tires leave the pavement due to a particularly stong gust!
The other item of note was that after we parked, I went outside the trailer in the 75mph wind to take a photograph. Normally, I couldn't have done so, (for those who don't know - I have a condition called Essential Tremors that causes a nearly unstoppable shaking of my hands). Camera shots were always bleary as a result. But not this day! The photo I took was perfect! It was all I could do to stand up in the gale, but for whatever reason, my hands were like iron that moment!