Derecho

 Wow-what a month August has turned into! The past few weeks have been a whirlwind literally. We survived Derecho and two milestone birthdays and the dreaded first days of school. So what is a Derecho you might ask well it is a line of intense, widespread, and fast-moving windstorms and sometimes thunderstorms that moves across a great distance and is characterized by damaging winds.

August 10,2020 will be a day not soon forgotten around here it all started early in the early afternoon when the alerts started hitting our phones. Soon after I received a text from Lainey who was home alone asking when I would be leaving work. I promised her soon and would be home before the storm. Well man that storm moved in fast! I was in the parking lot looking at the sky letting her know I was on my way and the storm still looked far away. I was within a mile from home when the wind started to swirl around me. Mind you I live five minutes from work once that wind started the sirens started to whale and my foot hit the gas. I never drove that fast in my life but it was all about getting home to protect my family. I called around to family members telling them to seek shelter only to find out my oldest was stuck at Hobby Lobby. Fear started to set in as I pulled up to the house and the light poles around me started to shot out sparks! I ran into the house flew to the basement to check on Lainey and all we could hear from that point was snap, crackle, and thud everywhere. 

We had tree limbs everywhere once the storm ended. You could not drive down our street and our neighborhood was pretty much shut down. We had over 100 power poles ripped from the ground, it was a war zone. After checking on the family making sure they where all ok I ran across the street to check on the neighbors. We are truly blown away by the damage but are grateful that everyone is ok. 

Sadly I lost my car in the storm it was old but still running like a beast! Ella was really sad as it was going to be her car once her license was in. It was good to us she will be sadly missed.

As night started to fall it was quickly becoming clear we would not have power for a bit, and for the first night, it was kind of exciting. Thankfully it was a cool evening and rather fun to sit outside with neighbors talking and getting to know one another. 

Tuesday August 11th, kicked off with clean up and man there was a ton of it. It also started to set in that the power was not coming on still and this started to bother the girls. In fact, the start of the school year was looming on Lainey's shoulders that she was not going to get a good night's sleep. As the day crept on we decided to reach out to friends that did have power and try to get as much food out of the fridge to be saved as we could.

Wednesday, August 12th the city has set up a dumpster for those of us still without power and it was time to clean out the fridge and the deep freezer. So sad we had just gone shopping on Sunday and with all the stocking up during the COVID (we used the extra money for from Erinn's unemployment for food) we ended up tossing well over $1,000 worth in the dumpster. It was sad really and it took us 3 trips. Also, today is my 50th Birthday and the kids are really bummed we can not do anything that was planned. We did make the best of it tho and that's all this guy needs. The weather was no longer cooperating with us as well sure 85 degrees does not sound hot but when you have no air movement it makes for a hard night of sleep. Ok, so we are starting to get a tad upset with the power, not at the company we get that they are working their butts offs. 8:00PM what is this? Is this the power company here to save the day?? Well... they came by looking at the damage came over to us and said "I'm so sorry folks there is nothing we can do tonight" we had so much damage around us that all they could do was clean up the wires and prepare for the next day. *sigh*

Thursday, August 13th and it was a rough night the house never really cooled off staying in the upper 70s all night long. It was also the first day of school with no power and no food in the house it made for an interesting send-off. But hey nothing a doughnut and milk from the gas station to start your day cant fix. I think this picture sums up August 2020, in a nutshell, wearing a mask to school tree damage in the background, yeah this one is for the books! They will be telling this story to their grandkids someday. 

It's really hard to send your kids off to school during these trying times but this one is always full of joy and could not wait to get back. She has been away from school and friends for six months and she was ready to go. 

Man Thursday was getting really bad the temps crept up to 90 degrees around 4o'clock we seemed to still be without hope. Finally, around 5 PM, the calvary showed up. It took them a while but shortly after 7, we had power! We cheered the linesmen and gave them huge Thank You and ran to close windows and turn on the A/C trying to cool off the house for the night. What a crazy week it has been.

Friday, August 14th the came to take my baby away. We bought this car when Ella was born because the car seat would not fit in our other car. So after sixteen years, this baby has seen a lot. It was really hard to say goodbye the car has been a beast. We felt safe handing it down to Ella when she could start driving. 

Did the Derecho effect you? Let me know in the comments below. It was a crazy ride that we will talk about for years to come.

Of course  I made a video of the experience for my kids to have down the road. It's a bit boring but your welcome to check it out.