Storm---Derecho

First of all, we are all OK!  Our house did not sustain any damage in the storm of Friday June 29, 2012, that occurred about 10:15PM.

We are so very thankful that everyone we know is safe and sound....maybe hot, since power has been out for some and isn't back on yet.

Our trees and neighbors trees sustained the damage. Which, we're sorry for the trees, but well.....they can grow back. 

The storm is called a Derecho and according to Wiki it is:A derecho (Spanish: derecho "straight", pronounced [de̞ˈɾe̞tʃo̞]^[1]), is a widespread and long-lived, violent convectively induced straight-line windstorm that is associated with a fast-moving band of severe thunderstorms in the form of a squall lineusually taking the form of a bow echo.

The winds were something else. Dulles Airport, which is about 5 miles from our home, clocked wind gusts at 74MPH!  

Our new shed (less than 2 yrs old) missed being squished, which is why it is new.  It was squished in a less violent storm by a large pine tree!  Hu-mom had raked the yard last week and it was free of sticks and debris.  You can see that the lawn chairs haven't moved.  The high winds were higher up, nearer the tree tops....

Mario and I had fun sniffing all the new smells. Just lots of debris everywhere.

In the shed mashing storm our fence also was damaged and their are 2 sections damaged in this storm.  Luckily, the 3 of us puggies are not jumpers!  All that green stuff on the ground in our neighbors yard is tree debris.  Our neighborhood is famous for it's very large, old trees.

Another view of our yard.

That's me sniffing around about 6AM the morning after.  

That's Mario with the glowing eyes and Mack, waiting to go inside, behind him.  That's my back in the right lower corner. Our yard was just full of debris.

Down the street, trees fell on the left rear of the house, and crashed into the bedrooms where they were sleeping. Everyone was OK. Luckily, they have good insurance and the owner is a contractor.

They had to completely cover their roof by a blue tarp, they were getting ready to put it on in this picture.  

Tree damage as you look down our street.

Our next door neighbor lost 3 trees, which feel gently between the two houses, missed fences and vehicles!



Hu-mom and dad have been working each day for several hours and in a few days it should be back to normal.  With the Temps near 100 in the afternoon,  they have been working in the early hours each morning. Of course, the 20 somethings that live here, were out of town, but will be helping starting today :).

We never lost power, however, cell phones, internet and cable were out for 1 day and land lines just came back yesterday afternoon.

One of the scariest things is that with such a wide power outage, traffic signals at most intersections were not working for a day or so.  And 911 was not working but is back up as of yesterday.

Our company headed home Friday morning, so they missed it. Us doggies will really miss them.  There might be a new family for Mario coming out of this visit....we'll just have to wait and see!

Stay cool.

Love, Minnie : )