It was a horrible crack of lightning and thunder and even inside my home 3 doors away I saw that lightning had hit up the street. I jumped off the couch, the dogs jumped up and started barking. We were all startled by the sound. What I didn't realize was that it actually hit a home. Minutes later the place was a swarming with EMS, Firefighters and Police. Very impressive. What was sad was listening to the sound of windows being broken by firefighters. Not sure why they had to do that.

The firetruck raced down my street until some bozo decided to pull over instead of pulling in a driveway and blocked the truck for at least a minute as they tried to get through. I swear people are getting dumber and drive as though they are the only one on the road!

The windows were broken to ventilate the smoke.. The smoke obscures vision and the heat prevents you from standing up to open the windows, Thank to all the residents that provided ice and drinks,

Thanks for posting, chief! The Lakewood Fire Department is on point.

I don't know what many of you were doing yesterday around 12:30pm, but I had stopped home for lunch and that is when the storm picked up its intensity.
Never in my life had I heard such a loud thunder clap. It made me jump, feel my chest to see how much my heart was pounding, look out the window to see if anything blew up, was about to or was on fire and it was also on top of the house in the sense that I saw the light and then with in a half second came the sound.
UNREAL.
It was followed by two more in short succession that were nearly as loud.

Brother-in-law lives nearby. I dropped off my canopies to protect what is salvageable outside from the elements until all is sorted out. The owner is a nice man whom I friended in the past. I hate to meet him during these circumstances but on a lighter note I got to meet him again. IMO, he wouldn't of survived if he was asleep in his bed.