"Derecho" kicked our ass

[W.E.G.]

This storm they call a "derecho" roared through ground zero DC Friday night.



Tore branches as big around as my thigh out of trees in my back yard.

Luckily none came through our roof.
Others in the area not so lucky.

No power.

Amazing how the big branches all came down in a "derecho" (straight line).



Figured yesterday morning to "bug-out" to the Shenandoah Valley 150 miles away, and spend the night in a hotel while they got the power back on in the DC area.

Day shaping up to be hot as blazes.

Lovely drive along the Skyline Drive where it was evident that the early-risers on the Park Service payroll had cleared the roads for us with chain saws.

Saw a family of wild turkeys cross the road in front of the car.



Got to destination 150 miles away and saw that traffic lights were out in many places in the town.
Many businesses were dark.

Got to our favorite restaurant outside of the town, and it was open!

Had a great meal, and overheard a just-arriving guest mention to the hostess that he had just gotten "the last room at the Econolodge."

WTF?.... over.

Started calling some local hotels.
No vacancy.

Started calling hotels in the area.
No vacancy.

Started calling hotels OUT of the area.
No vacancy.

Not one goddam hotel room available in the whole state of Virginia as of 1900 hours yesterday!!!

Soooooo.... got to drive 150 miles back home to the DC area because that was the ONLY place that I was going to be able to lie down for the night.

I was UNPREPARED.

Somewhere south of Culpeper, my (liberal) wife, out of the blue, said: "We need preparations."

I asked her what did she think was the gun collection and three cases of 9-year-old MRE's in the basement at the house???
The rest of the drive was pretty quiet. I didn't care, because I'd been up since 0500, had driven 400 miles at that point, and I wasn't much in the mood to think about it, let alone discuss it.

We got to the house, and while 350,000 Virginia customers still had no power, our power was back on. Thermostat had been set on 72 when the power had gone out 24 hours earlier. House felt cold as a meat locker. Considered turning on the furnace.

[thebufenator]

72 is not cold as a meat locker :P

[Gary Harwell]

I'm sure everyone will be well behaved in DC area tonight and next few days....
sound like a lot of cell phones out, who's gonna call the police?

When hurricanes first blow in the the southern gulf, hotels /motels are booked as far as 150 miles 3-4 days in advance. But wtf, a sudden land hurricane..

[W.E.G.]

We worked on the timber project in the back yard for about 4 hours.
Got all but the very biggest branches.
Gave up when the heat index hit 106 and we couldn't stand up anymore.

[FAL freek]

FWIW been through big ice storms and they cause the same problems when they roll through. Have you gotten the benefit of being at the local Wallyworld and watch 2 guys go Ali and Foreman over the last package of batteries because there's no power yet? It's a sight to behold. Also I would suggest avoiding local eateries once everybody starts coming back home until power gets restored to everybody, unless you enjoy 3 hour waits.

On the positive side it appears no one had tried to make your stuff their stuff in your absence.

[2barearms]

Originally Posted by FAL freek

FWIW been through big ice storms and they cause the same problems when they roll through. Have you gotten the benefit of being at the local Wallyworld and watch 2 guys go Ali and Foreman over the last package of batteries because there's no power yet? It's a sight to behold. Also I would suggest avoiding local eateries once everybody starts coming back home until power gets restored to everybody, unless you enjoy 3 hour waits.

On the positive side it appears no one had tried to make your stuff their stuff in your absence.

I'll take my chances in a Texas Hurricane before spending a month trapped
in an Iced Inn Deep Freeze Ice Storm without power in NE any day of the week!

[KoKodog]

WEG, where I live on top of the ridge I can watch electrical storms for quite a distance knowing where to look

Friday night when I first saw lightning (from my recliner) I pulled up my local radar on wunderground wunderrmap
>>> http://www.wunderground.com/wundermap/

from my elevation (962 ft) I watched the northern edge of that storm starting west of Carlisle PA
(probably west of Newville yet) all the way east to Reading PA and at that point my view becomes
blocked by the mountain to the east of me, so I basically watched the storm for about 100 miles of its path,
and it has been a few years since I have watched a storm that wild for a track like it took


I also kept watching this page >>> http://www.strikestarus.com/index.aspx?id=40
and everything within 150 miles of DC/Baltimore was lit up white with strikes


cleanup su*ks after a storm, it was no fun after a F1 bounced off the side of my home on 1 December of 2006
I was a**hole lucky, just a busted rear window on my car and the soffit of the front porch roof was buckled a bit
quite a pile of smaller branches in the yard, the neighbors had a round bale dropped in their yard and trees uprooted
the dog and I were sitting right beside the glass doors when it hit without warning - about 6 feet away
no need to ever repeat that scene again

[NHBandit]

We weren't affected here in East Tennessee other than the damn heat but being originally from NH I think I'd rather have the ice storms. We had one 2 years ago in the dead of Winter where we lost power for 12 days. Living in the north you can prepare for that. We had a wood stove in the livingroom as well as an antique wood burning kitchen cook stove in the diningroom. Food dosn't spoil, you just put it outside in coolers. You learn to have plenty of water, kerosene lanterns, etc on hand. Other than no TV & no internet it was just like camping. I feel for those people who are dealing with power outages in this 100+ degree heat. There's no way to keep cool, your food is going to rot, etc. Given the choice of when to go through a long term power outage I'll take Winter.

[308bolt]

Originally Posted by W.E.G.

Good Lord!
Even the democrats knew enough to evacuate!

[CTW]

WEG even a small generator helps out. My folks got hit hard in 2005 by hurricane wilma and had no power for 13 days in south, fl summertime. They used their small generator to run small fans and plug in their refrigerator. They cooked on a electric frying pan and grill. It sucked, but the generator made it barable. They played alot of cards those 13 days.

[Story]

Friend and coauthor bill forstchen notes washington-baltimore blackout mild taste of what an emp (electromagnetic pulse) attack would do

— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) July 2, 2012

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/...do_648043.html

Originally Posted by W.E.G.

We worked on the timber project in the back yard for about 4 hours.
Got all but the very biggest branches.
Gave up when the heat index hit 106 and we couldn't stand up anymore.

At least you'll get a jump on building the woodpile for the great snowstorms of 2012/13.

[KoKodog]

Originally Posted by 308bolt

Good Lord!
Even the democrats knew enough to evacuate!

wow, you're rather hard on the wildlife there calling them Democrats .......

[boomerdog1]

I'm just now able to use inter-web today, thankfully the electric was restored a few days ago. Hat's-off to the linemen and crews for busting thier asses, these guys are from as far away as Texas, and have been working overtime in 95-102* heat and Wv terrain for a week!

A few nieghbors and I cleared trees Friday night till about 12:00 am so we could get in and out of our nieghborhood, here's a few pics







We were pretty much prepared, generator with extra fuel, enough food and water, yada yada. I was suprised at how quickly the lines formed at the gas pumps and grocery stores though! There are still thousands of people without electric or water, and it might be that way till the middle of next week by some estimates.

[Tailback]

Boomerdog, I don't wish to insult your intelligence, but I hope power company crews had verified those lines were all dead before you cleared vegetation. It only takes 1 person with a backup genset not properly isolated to electrocute a good samaritan.

If you had already verified there was no juice, then my apologies.

I work for public works and deal with downed lines and storm damage frequently. It is not a situation to deal lightly with damaged utilities.

[boomerdog1]

Thanks for pointing that out Tailback, I should've been more clear about that. My nieghbor's brother in law works for the power company and brought a small crew to verify the lines weren't "hot" and shunted them to prevent any accidents from a generator as you describe. Thats a warning worth repeating, NEVER get near a downed line, you may make your only two mistakes, the first and last!

[catmguy445]

W.E.G.,

If you have 3 cases of 9-year old MRE's, you really aren't prepared. I was in the Army Reserve from 1982-1987, and was issued a bunch of MRE's during that period, a lot of which I kept and took home unopened. By 1995, all of the main dish packets had gone bad. The only things in the whole MRE that were still edible or usable were the crackers and the accessory packets.

Get rid of those MRE's. You don't have emergency rations any more, you have 3 cases of food poisoning waiting to happen. If you don't believe me, open one or two of them and see what they look/smell like, but DON'T EAT ANY OF THEM.