Extremely high winds in El Paso County

On Friday night, we had such high winds that trees were toppled all over the city, especially downtown, where most of them are at least a century old. At the Air Force Academy they recorded wind speeds of nearly 100 miles per hour, and downtown it was in the 60-70 MPH range.  Pat saw quite a few downed trees on his mail route on Saturday, and many of my local Facebook friends were posting pictures of errant barbecue grills, damaged fences, and cars (even houses!) squashed by falling branches or tree trunks. Our own back fence is looking pretty saggy after all that, and even as I type this, I can hear the winds howling outside. Sigh. I guess a call to the fence repair service is in order. City crews were prompt to take care of the fallen trees and get them out of the roadways, but there is still plenty of damage to be seen all over the city. On Sunday, Pat and I drove around so I could see the carnage for myself. It was pretty bad. This poor old tree was in the median of Willamette just east of El Paso Street. It's probably stood in that spot for over a hundred years, but I guess Mother Nature had other plans for it.