It Was A Dark And Stormy Night

I feel like I should whisper this blog post; I've forsaken my family and have snuck away to modernity (otherwise known as Starbucks) to write it.

Yep, that's right.  We're one of the million-plus people who were left without power by Friday night's epic storm.  Around 10:30 pm, as I was watching TV in the basement, I heard the wind whip up and, shortly after, heavy thuds as branches were torn from trees and fell to the ground.  The power blinked several times and then failed completely, and finally Mom and Dad joined me in the basement with battery-powered lanterns for safety.  (Our neighborhood has lots of gorgeous huge old trees, making it a scary place to be during bad storms.)  By 11:30, the wind had more or less died down but was replaced with lashing rain and near-constant flashes of lightening and rumbles of thunder.  We watched from the porch as the sky flickered, illuminating the debris littered over our backyard.

June 29, 2012 [via]

In the morning, we joined our neighbors on damage patrol; we always gather in the street in the aftermath of storms to assess the extent of the disaster.  Apparently, we experienced a derecho, a windstorm that accompanies thunderstorms that tracks a relatively straight path rather than twisting like a tornado and that is identified by gusts of at last 58mph.   Although there was some real damage to a few houses, no one was hurt - though I read that five people in the DC Metro area were killed - and I only saw one crushed car.  But we were essentially trapped by downed trees torn from their roots and toppled across roads and by branches that had snapped and been flung across yards by the wind.  Power cables dangled from poles like fishing line, promising a sweltering weekend with no air conditioning.

So here we are on hour 40 of no electricity (and no guarrantee of restored power until Friday) and day two of 100° heat with ice in short supply.  Mom's promised us surf and turf for dinner tonight because we need to eat the crabcakes and steaks that are in the freezer before they spoil, and last night the house glowed with candles in front of every mirror - you have to find silver linings to these sorts of things, I suppose.

I hope all of you in the DC area are safe and relatively comfortable, and that you've found a way to turn this weekend into an adventure!