The Derecho

[BlsdMama]

I’ve never seen anything like the devastation wreaked by the derecho.  Do ya’all in hurricane zones just not have mature trees?

My son, parents, and brother in law came yesterday to help. They got done cleaning up our daughter’s house last night by removing 5-6 trees of hers and the neighbor’s. No damage to the house, praise God. The adjuster has not been there. We are still without power and water.  The power is surprisingly easy, but the water is hard. My dad gave us two small barrels and we’re using buckets to make the potties flush.

Company flying in on Sunday... power restoration would be nice, but these fellas are working non-stop. If your husband or son is a lineman please thank them from me!

Most of our closest town got power yesterday. DH and I are celebrating with hot coffee today! We have family north of here so we’ve had showers. 
 

The weather has been great so we have been cooking outside. My kids are loving it -an extended camping trip with soft beds. You should see all the helpers. I love people.

[Innisfree]

51 minutes ago, BlsdMama said:

Do ya’all in hurricane zones just not have mature trees?

Those pictures look just like our neighborhood whenever a serious hurricane comes through. Lots and lots of mature trees, lol. Of course that varies by neighborhood.

The derecho sounds awful. I feel so bad for everyone without power and dealing with damage.

[cintinative]

My brother lives in S. Florida. He said the trees with deep roots do better in hurricanes than the others (Usually the deciduous trees like maples don't do well because their roots are shallow. The whole root ball pulls up and the tree falls.).  This is a non-expert observation he made. 

[mommyoffive]

Hoping you get power and water soon.  I love that your kids love it.

[Syllieann]

My MIL is still without power to and cell service is spotty. We finally found someone she could borrow a generator from because they were sold out an hour in every direction; they are in Cedar Rapids.  The house across the street had a free fall on it, but everyone is ok.  The street still looks like a war zone.  My kids were supposed to visit next weekend.  They had been looking forward to it all summer.  We are praying for you guys.

[kbutton]

I am sorry you're in the damaged area! It sounds like your kids are making the best of it, and I am glad you have helpers. It can be so expensive to deal with partially downed trees or damaged standing trees, and messy/hard work to deal with the ones that are all the way down! 

I hope you are keeping cool and get water back asap. Don't forget to take some pictures to remember later, particularly of your kids pitching in and making it fun. 

Tree damage can be better or worse with a lot of factors--how wet the soil was at the time the wind came through (and how deep it was damp), if the tree was in full foliage, if it was accompanied by an ice storm, etc. Also by how recently one of the types of bad storms came through and "cleaned up" or weakened your existing trees before the current event. Hurricane Ike was our biggest inconvenience (it came to use via the Ohio River) with electricity out for days, and it was big enough that my son remembers it pretty well even though he was only 2. We had half of a massive tulip tree fall down, and I paid him 25 cents per wagonload of debris he moved. He loved it and earned about $8, lol! We've been fortunate to not have a direct hit by a tornado. 

We recently got a generator, but we need to work out a way to plug it in...probably shouldn't wait on that this time of year.

I hope the helpers hear about the most vulnerable and are able to get to them quickly. 

[Guest]

We had a derecho come through years back (nicknamed Hurricane Elvis). It was horrible. It took weeks to get everyone's power back on, lots of property damage, and just plain awful.

 

But, the area we now live in, which was right in the path, has TONS of extremely old trees. For the most part, the ones that were destroyed were smaller, or were already weakened and hollow. The mature ones survived, even when roofs of houses didn't. 

 

I imagine the same is true in this derecho-and in hurricanes. 

 

There was a cool talk on anoles at one of the conferences-apparently, the lizards in areas that get frequent high winds have greater grip strength and stronger/bigger toes than those of the same species farther inland. 

[BlsdMama]

11 hours ago, Syllieann said:

My MIL is still without power to and cell service is spotty. We finally found someone she could borrow a generator from because they were sold out an hour in every direction; they are in Cedar Rapids.  The house across the street had a free fall on it, but everyone is ok.  The street still looks like a war zone.  My kids were supposed to visit next weekend.  They had been looking forward to it all summer.  We are praying for you guys.

Do they need help cleaning up? We’re close. We have a chainsaw, a truck, and a miniature army, plus we travel. We’ve finished our daughter’s and a couple other spots. Does she need anything?

We also have this magical thing called electricity. Some of the kids were bummed but I do love flushing  

 

[Syllieann]

17 minutes ago, BlsdMama said:

Do they need help cleaning up? We’re close. We have a chainsaw, a truck, and a miniature army, plus we travel. We’ve finished our daughter’s and a couple other spots. Does she need anything?

We also have this magical thing called electricity. Some of the kids were bummed but I do love flushing  

 

You are so sweet to offer.  I think they are ok with the help they have; they have a tight knit church and neighborhood.  And you are right about people stepping up.  That community really rallied during the 08 flood too.

They had the insurance adjuster out today.  Two sides of the house need new siding and there is roof damage.  The generator is hooked up and they were able to find gas.  That was a big deal because MIL'S step dd has insulin that needs to stay refrigerated.  We decided they will be coming here instead of the kids going to their house this year.  They are expecting to get electricity back on in about a week.I

Step dd was driving during the storm and a branch went through the window.  She was hospitalized, but is home and doing well now.

[Katy]

1 hour ago, Syllieann said:

You are so sweet to offer.  I think they are ok with the help they have; they have a tight knit church and neighborhood.  And you are right about people stepping up.  That community really rallied during the 08 flood too.

They had the insurance adjuster out today.  Two sides of the house need new siding and there is roof damage.  The generator is hooked up and they were able to find gas.  That was a big deal because MIL'S step dd has insulin that needs to stay refrigerated.  We decided they will be coming here instead of the kids going to their house this year.  They are expecting to get electricity back on in about a week.I

Step dd was driving during the storm and a branch went through the window.  She was hospitalized, but is home and doing well now.

 

I'm glad she's okay.