Freak of Nature

A derecho...that's what they call it.  A fast-moving, ass-kicking hurricane-like storm, that basically comes up--out of nowhere and covers a LOT of square mileage--FAST, leaving destruction--aka: downed trees and downed power lines, in its wake. They say they happen once every four years.  We had a date with one a couple nights ago...

Friday night about 10pm, Greg had just finished an episode of Breaking Bad (which I do not like!).  He was online checking the interwebs and I was in the living room.  Greg happened to check Washington Post's site and then came into the living room and told me to put on The Weather Channel.  There, we see, moving fast and furiously--FROM CHICAGO,  this massive storm system coming right for us.  

Basically we had 30 minutes to prepare ourselves for this huge lighting and thunder storm with 60 mph winds.  Power outages were imminent.  We rushed around getting battery operated lanterns, flashlights and our crank powered radio out of the basement.  We unplugged all the computers and electronics and then we braced ourselves.  And sure enough, 30 minutes later-on the DOT, the rain started. The lighting started...the thunder started.  And then the winds really kicked in.  The lights went off and then came back on.  We stood on the porch and marveled at what was going on around us.  The lights went off again and stayed off...There we were, in the middle of this whirlwind, totally stunned and surprise and not really knowing what to expect, but hoping for the best...

The storm lasted around us for a good hour; then moved on and was gone.  There was minor debris/small branches down on our street.  We wouldn't notice the much larger tree branch that had come down on our neighbor's car until the morning.  As far as we could tell, we came thru unscathed.

That was until Saturday morning. 

A record breaking heat wave was forecasted for a second day in a row on Saturday.  Temperatures were expected to be 102...which it seemed to be already at 8:30am.  And almost immediately, it was being reported that power outages could take up to A WEEK to repair.  We, with two little kids and two big dogs, didn't really want to stick around to see if they would be right.

Plus, everything was closed: the pool at the Y, the grocery stores, the gas stations.  The traffic lights were out, making driving not fun.  Not to mention water use was restricted because the storm had  knocked out electricity to the local water purification plant and we were told to ration water.  Not to mention a very sad farewell I said to everything in our fridge and freezer...

Very lucky for us, we were able to hightail it back to the beach house that Greg's parents own...and were able to pass the weekend in relative comfort...with access to the beach, the pool and air conditioning...so, so fortunate and we were incredible thankful to have someplace cool to go.

No creative post today...just a crazy story about a freak of nature...a Derecho!  Who knew?!!
Hope its a very long time before we encounter one again!


Check out this Washington Post photo gallery to see what this storm really did to our area.