One week ago, today, I left the comfort of home to seek shelter from a huge super-storm hitting the Washington DC area. I live west of Washington DC but I knew that my area would also get hit pretty hard.

I sought safety at the horse farm managed by my girlfriend. The horse stables there were built in the last few years and they feature large apartments for visiting horse owners who compete in the many local (equine) shows. This wasn’t the first time a massive storm hit our area and we knew the horse stables were located safely away from tall trees and it had a generator to supply lights, water and heat if we lost power. We wouldn’t have the ability to cook a warm meal but we knew we would be safe and warm.

From the safety of the horse stables I watched the steady rain as the winds steadily picked up speed. When the darkness of night came the winds were at their highest and I had to use a flashlight to see the 75 foot tall trees as they swayed an incredible distance from the force of the wind. There was no doubt there would be plenty of damage before the night was through. The super-storm caused by Hurricane Sandy was everything the news predicted.

As we feared the power did go out (due to numerous trees coming down on power lines) and it wouldn’t be restored for days. The following morning I ventured out with my camera to see just how much damage there was.

When I saw all the uprooted trees I was thankful nobody on the farm was hurt.

Unfortunately there were plenty of trees and fences destroyed by the awesome power of nature. I captured some of the more incredible sights (like the twisted tree above) for the farms insurance claims. For this blog I wanted to share some pictures of what I saw the morning following the super-storm and some from a few days later (when the skies looked a little more interesting). Here’s a few of the more incredible sights I witnessed on the 123 acres of the farm: