Today's vocab word: derecho (and why some in the Midwest and East need to be concerned)

[Jane in NC]

Potentially damaging storms tonight and tomorrow, folks. The conditions may be right for a derecho.

 

Link.

[Butter]

The derecho last year was terrifying. My daughter was at camp where we learned later that they spent several hours in concrete bathrooms scared to death. When they went back to their tents, one girl discovered a twig had been impaled right in the middle of her cot. That is when, I think, the girls realized just how serious the storm had been and how lucky they were that they were all safe. At home, we lost a very old Walnut tree and our neighbor lost several pine trees. They were just twisted and thrown. Our road was closed off by three trees on the road in a pretty short distance (with our house ni between). We didnt have power for a few days.

 

Today my daughter left for camp , but we're nearly 2,000 miles away from where we were last year. I told her a derecho was possible there and my daughter shuddered. It was a very scary experience. Anyone in the path, be safe. It really came on suddenly and did damage fast.

[delaney]

We had one in VA last year and it was insane! The wind literally came like a wall and then stuck for what felt like hours but was only minutes. It felt like a tornado without the swirl. People around here lost power for days.

[Beth in OH]

When I read our weather forecast this morning, I had to look it up :leaving:

[hillfarm]

We were out of power for nearly 10 days due to the last derecho. The most popular items during the outage were gasoline, ice, and bottled water. If you are potentially in the path of this storm, please make sure that you have enough of these things to last for several days. In my area, many areas were completely inaccessible to disaster relief responders for several days due to downed trees and power lines blocking the roads.

 

We are under a tornado watch currently. I am getting ready to go check my dm's house, since she is out of town. Then will batten down our yard. Finally, I will catch up on laundry and straighten the house to make sure we don't have any tripping hazards that might be a problem in a low light situation. I will also fill a couple of 5 gallon jugs with drinking water.

[mom2scouts]

Ugh, two of my kids are at camp this week. I really hope the forecast is wrong!

[mom2scouts]

Oops, double post.

[Catherine]

We just finished the repairs of damage from last year's derecho!! I sincerely hope the forecast is wrong. We have a lot of huge trees.

[Rebecca VA]

What's scary is that since yesterday morning I've seen very few birds out. Normally we have dozens of beautiful birds at a time at the feeders in our backyard. Yesterday and today, we've seen almost none. I wonder if they sense something and are hiding themselves.

[Onceuponatime]

My husband gave us a Spanish lesson about the difference between derecho and derecha. :-)

[Blueridge]

I watched a meteorologist's report to hear how the word was pronounced, and he said it 3 different ways... :huh: ...so I'm glad I'm not the only one wondering! Are there damage reports this morning? I think the main line is heading just north of us, thankfully, but it is quite breezy right now.

[Chris in VA]

Hope you all stay safe! It was very scary last year. I woke up and felt this "gathering roar"sensation. I know that sounds funny, but I got out of bed and asked my husband, who was still up, if we should go to the basement...YES! We got the kids up quickly and headed down. I am always concerned about my pets, but there was a complete sense of urgency and we practically ran down the stairs. We lost numerous huge trees, including the one holding our dd's treehouse, which dominoed two more big trees. It was so powerful!