Mother Nature WTF???

[ny biker]

Floods in Florida, wildfires in Colorado, record-breaking heat wave, and now a huge high-wind thunderstorm smashing through the midwest and about to hit the mid-Atlantic.

Everybody take care and be safe!!!

(If you're anywhere from Philly to Richmond, plug in your cell phone, get your flashlights ready and stay indoors!!)

[Koronin]

It's crazy, scary. We had a fire near here also. It's apparently completely contained at this point. This one was in the Croatian National Forest and was started as controlled burn that got out of control. (Investigation is being done to see exactly what happened to try to prevent it from happening again).

Everyone stay safe.

[Grits]

I know! We apparently had a high wind storm here last night, but no rain. I don't recall that ever happening before. The umbrella on the deck blew over and there were lots of branches down in the yard. And now another day of 105 degree heat to look forward to!

[Selkie]

In a word, a nightmare here in the WDC metro area.

It hit us around 10:30---husband, dogs, and I came downstairs into the living room since our house is surrounded by huge old oaks. Sounded worse than Hurricane Isobel, but thank God, it didn't last long.

We were one of the lucky ones---didn't lose power. We didn't have internet until 1pm Saturday, verizon & att wireless service is (was) out, and our landline is now down.

Many in the area are without power. There are tree branches down in my neighborhood, but we got off easy, comparatively speaking.

The pool opened on time and several of my friends there were without power in their homes. After a half hour, they closed the pool due to the lack of communications (i.e., no phone service, so they couldn't call 911 in case one of us geezers had a heart attack and needed an ambulance). I was only able to do about a quarter of my normal Saturday endurance swim, do I came home, walked the dogs before it got hot, and rowed 5,000 meters!

Possibly more storms expected today.... Praying it's not as bad as last night.

Hope all are well.

[Catrin]

I won't say that we didn't need the rain, WE DID/DO (please send more), but it would be nice if it was a bit more gentle when it came... Thankfully it looks like southern Indiana might finally get some rain this evening, crossing my fingers they do. The entire state is pretty much a tinder box right now, especially down there.

[OakLeaf]

We are fine, both person and property, but don't expect power for several days, so I'll be conserving battery. You all be safe.

[skhill]

The edge of the storm just clipped us. No rain, but a heck of a lot of wind. Dropped the temp from 100+ to 85 in no time flat. Pretty scary stuff...

We're on the 3rd day of 100F. Yuck. It's the worst heat wave I've experienced in KY. My (unairconditioned) kitchen was over 110 yesterday while the bread was in the oven. But the window AC unit is doing a good job of keeping the living room comfortable.

[Blueberry]

The edge of the storm just clipped us. No rain, but a heck of a lot of wind. Dropped the temp from 100+ to 85 in no time flat. Pretty scary stuff...

We're on the 3rd day of 100F. Yuck. It's the worst heat wave I've experienced in KY. My (unairconditioned) kitchen was over 110 yesterday while the bread was in the oven. But the window AC unit is doing a good job of keeping the living room comfortable.

We just got crazy wind last night - very suddenly - and then it was gone as quickly as it came. No rain. We are following the no oven and no burner (gas) rule in our house until the temp is less than 100 outside. So...sometime about Tuesday we can cook again (though probably not bake). Our central air is kinda sorta keeping up.

[Owlie]

We are fine, both person and property, but don't expect power for several days, so I'll be conserving battery. You all be safe.

Ugh. I didn't lose power, but my sister and her boyfriend did. I really don't expect them to get power back until at least Monday. Hopefully her boyfriend's fish (he has a fairly large tank) are okay.

[ny biker]

I still have no power at home. Am at my office now - power is on but my key card won't open the office door -security system must need to be reset. So I'm sitting on the floor in the hall next to an outlet, charging my phone. My butt is already sore and I'm going to be here a while.

It was a scary storm - so sudden - I'm glad I knew it was coming. Otherwise I would have totally freaked out when it came roaring in.

[tulip]

I spent some quality time in my basement with my bike helmet on. More fun going on right now but Williamsburg is getting the worst of it with 2.5" hail and tornado warnings. I have not lost power.

[zoom-zoom]

And the best part is that we are semi-parched here in MI and we have new, lax fireworks regulations--thanks, Gov. Snyder (not!)...I can't wait for wildfires a la CO! :rolleyes:

[salsabike]

You guys, it sounds really tough out there. Please know we are thinking of you and wishing you well.

[ny biker]

I spent some quality time in my basement with my bike helmet on. More fun going on right now but Williamsburg is getting the worst of it with 2.5" hail and tornado warnings. I have not lost power.

Yes I heard about the storm down by you tonight. Glad it's not serious.

My electricity just came on at home. At first the thermostat just blinked at me, so I was worried the a/c wasn't working, but after a minute it clicked on.

The cable tv and modem are not working. Comcast's recorded message says they're working on fixing it. So I guess I'll miss the TdF again tomorrow. But I can still go for a bike ride and then come home to cool air.

[FlyingScot]

Central Ohio was hit very hard as well. We had clocked 85mph winds. 200,000+ people are without power and the heat wave continues. They've called out the National Guard to go house by house in the "economically challenged" neighborhoods to make sure the elderly and sick are okay. We were out power for only 6 hours (my small city has their own power company that rocks. AEP not so much). The worst thing is that most of the gas stations and grocery stores are still out of power. Gas lines at the only open stations were approaching a 3 hour wait...as long as the gas lasted. Ice is getting hard to find. I don't have AC at all (hate it) so I'm better prepared to handle the heat and I'm acclimated to it. Power is not likely to be completely restored until the 6th. They are saying this is worse than when Hurricane Ike blew through in 2008.

[Catrin]

Flying Scott...I had no idea things were so bad in Ohio! Guess I should watch the news more often instead of curling up with a good book. I knew there had been some serious storms, but not like THAT. I hope they are able to get to everyone sooner rather than later - this isn't the kind of weather to be out of power.

Tulip - I can picture you in the basement with your bike helmet on - that was a really good idea! I hope that all of our TE members are safe and stay that way.

I don't know if Indiana has had enough rain to decrease the fire potential, but I think there probably hasn't been - especially in southern Indiana. Almost the entire state has open burn bans and has banned private fireworks. We hope to get more rain this afternoon, and at least the cloud cover is protecting us somewhat from the big broiler in the sky...

[breeze]

Flying Scott, sorry to hear that you're dealing with that this weekend. I'm visiting family up near Warren/Youngstown this weekend, and while we hit some rain on the Friday night drive, things are fine up here. I have lots of friends in Columbus without power, though, and have a healthy distrust of AEP after the many times that I lost power (for days at a time) during even inconsequential storms there.

[ny biker]

Central Ohio was hit very hard as well. We had clocked 85mph winds. 200,000+ people are without power and the heat wave continues. They've called out the National Guard to go house by house in the "economically challenged" neighborhoods to make sure the elderly and sick are okay. We were out power for only 6 hours (my small city has their own power company that rocks. AEP not so much). The worst thing is that most of the gas stations and grocery stores are still out of power. Gas lines at the only open stations were approaching a 3 hour wait...as long as the gas lasted. Ice is getting hard to find. I don't have AC at all (hate it) so I'm better prepared to handle the heat and I'm acclimated to it. Power is not likely to be completely restored until the 6th. They are saying this is worse than when Hurricane Ike blew through in 2008.

On Friday night, I got up and checked the batteries in my flashlights after I read how many people had lost power in Ohio and Indiana.

Part of the problem restoring power in Va/MD/DC is that they have to wait for help from power companies farther away because the closer states like West Virginia and Ohio were hit so hard by this storm.

My parents have no air conditioning so I've learned from them that keeping the windows and curtains closed during the day will actually keep the house less hot. My thermostat was set at 76 when the power went out, and the indoor temp slowly reached 82 by the time my electricity came back on, just over 24 hours after it went out. However with so little cooling at night, it would have gotten uncomfortable today for me if I still had no power. Fortunately there are cooling centers open here -- various libraries, shopping malls and community centers.

They described the damage in the western part of northern Virginia (Loudoun County, Reston and Herndon in Fairfax County) as "catastrophic," so I assume those areas are being restored more slowly than my area closer to the city.

[ny biker]

!!! Please tell me this is a joke -- just saw this on twitter --

RT @JimCantore: Good Lord!! #Chicago has a #SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR 100 mph winds. SERIOUSLY DANGEROUS SITUATION FOR CHICAGO

[Catrin]

!!! Please tell me this is a joke -- just saw this on twitter --

RT @JimCantore: Good Lord!! #Chicago has a #SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR 100 mph winds. SERIOUSLY DANGEROUS SITUATION FOR CHICAGO

I just looked at Weather.com and the alert was for 60mph winds (http://www.weather.com/weather/alerts/localalerts/USIL0225?phenomena=SV&significance=W&areaid=ILC031&office=KLOT&etn=0068) That is bad enough :eek:

[OakLeaf]

Actually there were 650k AEP customers in Ohio out at peak. They have it down to 470k last I checked. I think something like 1.2M statewide. We're on a co-op but there is a LOT of damage, plus AEP owns and maintains the transmission tower(s) that collapsed.

We're just lucky we have friends in town to get water from every couple of days ... And enough land that we can, ahem, dig holes... :eek:
Back to conserving battery. ;)

[Selkie]

It'll be interesting to see what happens tomorrow, when people are set to return to work.

According to the news, there are still a lot of roads blocked and intersections dark because the power is still out.

[Koronin]

Flying Scott, sorry to hear that you're dealing with that this weekend. I'm visiting family up near Warren/Youngstown this weekend, and while we hit some rain on the Friday night drive, things are fine up here. I have lots of friends in Columbus without power, though, and have a healthy distrust of AEP after the many times that I lost power (for days at a time) during even inconsequential storms there.

OMG, Warren is where my family lives and where I grew up. When to college at Youngstown State U.

[ny biker]

It'll be interesting to see what happens tomorrow, when people are set to return to work.

According to the news, there are still a lot of roads blocked and intersections dark because the power is still out.

I've only seen info for Arlington, and while they are making progress getting traffic lights back online there are still many that are not working. Last night on my way home (after 10 pm) I noticed they had put cones in several intersections to block you from going some ways.

I'm on my way out to get a new phone (Droid Razr Maxx for only $199 at Radio Shack today) and then I want to hit the grocery store. Should be interesting. But if the stores are open, I'm hoping the main intersections in that area also have power.

[Crankin]

Wow. I have a friend (actually a former bf) who lives in Herndon. He's here in MA for a wedding and I wonder what he will face when returning home.

[lovelygamer]

Hour and a half south of DC here and we got the storm but not as bad as DC. I slept through it except for the part where I woke up screaming bloody murder. I guess my subconscious was listening to the storm. Thankfully, not much power was lost down here on the shore. Were all at 100 or over heat indexes. I am glad no one here got hurt. I was worried, I heard it was insane in DC. I know the governor called liberal leave for state employees for tomorrow (Monday).

NY :( I feel for you. That is just crappy. I'm glad you could get into work or somewhere at least, for reprieve.

[Owlie]

My sister and my adviser (he lives close by) got their power back Saturday. Friends of mine still don't have power.

[laura*]

This evening I (tried) calling my mom in Ohio. She's fine - they never lost power - and there's no damage other than some leaves down in the yard.

However ... the phone line kept going dead at about 3 minutes into a call. After the second time this happened, I decided the (Ohio) phone system must be overloaded or having problems. (It also took a loooong time to connect.) Mom and I decided to cut our third call short - and to talk at length some other time.

[Koronin]

Glad to hear some are starting to get power back. Prayers to all effected by these storms.

[Selkie]

Unscheduled leave for all of us Fed'l public servants. Hopefully, a lot of folks will be taking the day off so the traffic won't be nuts.

[tulip]

Unscheduled leave for all of us Fed'l public servants. Hopefully, a lot of folks will be taking the day off so the traffic won't be nuts.

Good. I'm in DC for a meeting and was dreading the ore-4th of July traffic this afternoon. I'm sure it will still be bad. Back roads will definitely be my friends.

[FlyingScot]

Well the other shoe dropped. We had ANOTHER storm last night with 60mph winds. Some people who had just gotten their power restored lost it again! Others who never lost power in the first storm are now without it. What a screwy weather week. It looks like 7/8 will be when everyone should have their power restored and we're in for another hot one with temps in the high 90's through the weekend.

[OakLeaf]

Lots of phone lines down and switching stations with no power. They put a portable generator on our switching station but we still don't have phone. They're saying Sunday for electric now. Provided no more storms. My parents in Annapolis, MD had power back in less than 48 hrs, but there are just too many transmission towers down here and across the region. I'm getting used to going without a shower....

[withm]

Lots of phone lines down and switching stations with no power. They put a portable generator on our switching station but we still don't have phone. They're saying Sunday for electric now. Provided no more storms. My parents in Annapolis, MD had power back in less than 48 hrs, but there are just too many transmission towers down here and across the region. I'm getting used to going without a shower....

You need a "Sun Shower." They heat up pretty quickly in weather like this and can get downright hot. Your local camping supply store should have something like this

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=sun+shower&tag=mh0b-20&index=aps&hvadid=160349619&ref=pd_sl_73h1z5t99s_e

[lovelygamer]

I am knocking on wood. I was woken by the storm this morning and it was bad but so far no power losses in my area. I really feel for you all up in the metro region. :( I hope the power is restored quicker than the predictions.

[ny biker]

Lots of phone lines down and switching stations with no power. They put a portable generator on our switching station but we still don't have phone. They're saying Sunday for electric now. Provided no more storms. My parents in Annapolis, MD had power back in less than 48 hrs, but there are just too many transmission towers down here and across the region. I'm getting used to going without a shower....

My water heater is in an attic on the top floor of the building, one floor above my condo. It's ridiculously inefficient to have it there, especially in winter, but the water in it had no trouble staying hot after the power went out this weekend. I used just a bit of it to take a cool shower on Saturday and then stood there air-drying. It cooled me off quite a bit.

My cable tv and internet service is on and off right now, which means anyone who has phone service through the cable company also has service going on and off. And my neighbor, who has two Verizon land lines in her house, says one works fine but the other has not worked since Friday night. I've heard about FIOS problems, too.

I just keep thinking, at least it's not winter when we have to worry about freezing pipes when the HVAC loses power. And we don't have horrible floods like there was after Katrina. It sucks but could be much worse.

Meanwhile I haven't heard much about the fires in Colorado, so I hope that means they're getting them under control.

[OakLeaf]

Sun shower would be nice if we had water! We finally found a generator so we can stop hauling ice, but it would have to be wired in to power the pump.

[Tri Girl]

thinking about you all over there. This weather is truly crazy.

I saw this, and had to laugh, tho. I'm sure some of you living in the area will get a giggle out of it. Not trying to make light of the situation, but with all the wacky weather, this just made me laugh.

Hot Weather in Richmond (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVEPvXBEOSE)
It's a total weather spoof- just watch.

[zoom-zoom]

I'm really thankful that the storms haven't hit here. We were without power long enough last Summer to lose the entire contents of our fridge. And since we have a well we had no pump...no running water. No toilet. That got old really fast. A neighbor a few blocks away is on city water and let us fill buckets from his hose, that way we were able to heat water on the stove and bucket-flush our toilet. It really sucked. Thankfully it wasn't hot.

Our next house will either be on city water or we'll buy a good generator, from the get-go. We also won't have a power-vented water heater, which can't be used without power.

[tulip]

thinking about you all over there. This weather is truly crazy.

I saw this, and had to laugh, tho. I'm sure some of you living in the area will get a giggle out of it. Not trying to make light of the situation, but with all the wacky weather, this just made me laugh.

Hot Weather in Richmond (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVEPvXBEOSE)
It's a total weather spoof- just watch.

Wonderful!! We'e had some dramatic weather in RVA for sure!

[OakLeaf]

Wooohooo! Electric and internet both came back last night, way earlier than predicted. If I'd known all we had to do was buy a generator, I'd have been looking harder. :p There are still something like 350,000 AEP customers down in Ohio, don't know what the total is for all companies.

Oddly enough, even though we have DSL, still no phone. This happened once before and the phone company explained that the DSL is switched from a different station from the voice service.

Kudos again to our awesome co-op, and to all the line workers from around the country who've been working so hard to get everyone back on line. And thanks to our friends in town who let us swipe water and take a couple of showers.

[Koronin]

Glad you've got your power back.

[ny biker]

A couple of storm tidbits from the DC region --

We've had problems with 911 service in the close-in suburbs in Virginia (Arlington, Fairfax County, Alexandria). This was the most disturbing of all the news I've been reading since the derecho hit. When you see an alert from your local government advising you to call the non-emergency number or go to the nearest fire station in an emergency, it's pretty scary.

On a lighter note, I spoke to a friend yesterday who lives in DC, and he said they did not lose power at his house. In fact they never lose electricity at his house, because they're on the same grid as the White House. I lived around the corner from him for a couple of years back when I first moved to this area, and I don't think I ever lost electricity while I was there, but it never occurred to me why that might be the case.

[Blueberry]

On a lighter note, I spoke to a friend yesterday who lives in DC, and he said they did not lose power at his house. In fact they never lose electricity at his house, because they're on the same grid as the White House. I lived around the corner from him for a couple of years back when I first moved to this area, and I don't think I ever lost electricity while I was there, but it never occurred to me why that might be the case.

Snort. That's too funny!!

The other stuff is just plain scary. DC seems to have had significant natural "issues" too frequently lately.

[ny biker]

This has some good tips on maximizing your ability to communicate during power outages...

http://blog.ce.org/index.php/2012/07/03/staying-online-after-a-storm/

BTW, we had some thunderstorms tonight, not severe but with some wind and lightning, and about 11,000 lost power afterwards. At least some of them had only just gotten the electricity back...

[Dogmama]

On a lighter note, I spoke to a friend yesterday who lives in DC, and he said they did not lose power at his house. In fact they never lose electricity at his house, because they're on the same grid as the White House. I lived around the corner from him for a couple of years back when I first moved to this area, and I don't think I ever lost electricity while I was there, but it never occurred to me why that might be the case.

Interesting!

Have a childhood friend in the affected area who has been without power for several days. Luckily, her neighbor has power. Weird. Around here, when a storm wipes something out, we ALL get hit.

[ny biker]

I was renting a condo on the other side of my neighborhood back when hurricane Isabel hit. I lost power for 4 days while the people across the street never had a problem. For the recent storm, that part of the neighborhood had their power restored Tuesday morning, vs. Saturday night for the area where I live now. Our power lines are all underground, so the cause of an outage is always a few miles away at least.


I was just out for a ride this morning, and I saw a fair number of utility trucks along the way. I think everyone I saw was from a different state, but they're here on the holiday trying to get everyone back online.

[OakLeaf]

We went into the "big city" for the fireworks last night and there were probably 50 utility trucks eastbound on I-70 in the 45 minutes it took us to get there. The cavalry is continuing to arrive. Our phone is back on, not that we use the landline much.

We're extra lucky. There are lines down about 1/2 mile down the road from us, and everybody below there is still dark. They attached a guy rope to keep one pole from leaning any further into the road/falling over before they can replace it, but repairs are probably still days away. We did see one of the transmission towers with a broken connector and a wire dangling, just north of I-70.

Actually, yesterday morning when I headed out for my run, my neighbor who shares my lane was out in her yard. They also had bought a generator the night before and ran it all night, and didn't even know their electric was back on until I told her!

[ny biker]

Why it takes so long to fix a power outage...

http://gizmodo.com/5922841/why-it-takes-so-long-to-fix-a-power-outage

There's a small fire station around the corner from me. I wonder if I benefit from that?

[Dogmama]

We had our first big storm - over 3" in some areas. Immediate flooding, as the desert can't absorb water quickly. Some swift water rescues - people who ignore the "street closed" signs, holler "watch this!" and get stuck. The gene pool continues to be weeded out...

[skhill]

We're looking at the 4th daily record high temp in just one week today. This is getting really old...

It was bad when I was without electricity for a week following an ice storm once, but I'd rather deal with it in the winter than in this dreadful heat. I still had heat, just no lights/ hot water/ cooking. I hope everyone who's still down gets their power back very soon...