Derecho

Let me tell you about our first experience (at least that I can ever remember) with a weather event known as a Derecho.

Last night around 9pm, Keith and I were watching the Softball World Cup when all of the sudden we heard wind. Oh, by the way, yesterday was a record 103 or 104 (not sure of the official yet) and was sunny with a 10% chance of rain. Well, anyway, the wind was super strong and then we heard something hitting the roof of the house. We wondered if it was rain or hail at first, but then determined it was branches from our trees hitting the roof. Not big ones, but little ones. Then the TV went off with the power and we could really hear the wind and debris then.

In a couple of seconds the TV came back on, but Keith and I were curious, so we headed out to the dining room bay window to look outside. There was still enough light to see the trees being thrashed by the wind and lightening in the distance. It was very odd, as they really weren’t calling for thunderstorms and usually when there is a bad one coming our way we have weather alerts on the television letting us know. This thing came out of nowhere, literally!

Keith opened the kitchen door and turned on the light and we could see there was not any rain at all, just a hot and strong wind and all kinds of leaves and things blowing around. Little branches were still hitting our roof. We went back inside and the power flickered on and off a few more times so we decided we would call it a night and not mess with trying to finish watching the game.

The wind still continued so I went and looked out our back bedroom window at the backyard. The trees were being blown so hard it looked like they were half way bent over. Then the transformers in the neighborhood behind our house went. Three of them. I watched them go, one by one, starting at the top of the hill and progressing down toward the stop light on the street behind our house. And with the bright explosions went all of the lights in that neighborhood. Totally black.

I came back to bed and we listened for a little more as the wind howled and little branches hit our roof. There were a couple of bright lightening flashes, no real thunder that I can remember and then after about 20 minutes everything got quiet. We still had power, as all of the neighbor’s flood lights were on and we could see there was debris blown around everywhere.

When we got up this morning, that’s when we realized how bad it was and we had it good compared to most people, especially since our street was the only one around with power. VERY LUCKY, since today was another 100+ day. The neighborhood behind us was without power, the streetlight was out and we heard lots of near misses as people went through the intersection, the office building behind us was running on a generator, the 7-11 was without power…just a mess.

Literally, a mess. We lost a big branch from one of our trees and many, many small branches and leaves. Our neighbor lost a Bradford Pear tree and leaves from our trees were all over the cul-de-sac. Everyone was out this morning cleaning up before it became too hot to work outside. Keith moved lots of wheelbarrows full of debris down the hill, along with the big branch. Our neighbors had the tree that they lost cut up and brought over for us for firewood. I think almost everyone was out today dealing with the aftermath of the derecho. And they are saying we could have another one tonight. Don’t know if I want to go through that again. It was pretty wild to witness last night.

BTW, this was written on Saturday, the 30th. Although we have power, we do not have cable or internet access, so I am not sure when this will be posted.

And, as we found out Sunday morning, the high on Friday was officially 104, and Saturday was another 100+ day at 101, but the humidity was slightly lower, so not as bad outside. This morning (Sunday) Keith and I sat outside and read the paper and could tell a difference. And, our poor neighbors behind us still do not have power. The power company hopes to have everything restored by Saturday. Let’s hope it’s much sooner!

Well, it is now Tuesday evening and we finally have cable and internet service, so I am able to post again. Again, we are very thankful that we only lost cable and internet. There are still many without power, without hopes of having restored any time soon.