Derecho Wind Storms

Last week, we had a pretty phenomenal weather event roll through the Mid-Atlantic:  A Derecho Wind Storm.

Winds of 70 mph destroyed homes, trees, and our power grid.

I'm sure that by now, you've seen pictures of the damage around the Mid-Atlantic region, and seen the close up pictures of how bad the damage was in and around the DC Metro area.

Our power is up and running now, and I have a few observations I'd like to share:

1) Gas runs out quickly.  If you are fortunate enough to have a generator and a garage or shed to store gas in, keep the tanks full.  Fill a new can as soon as you use it up. 

2) Generators make life bearable.  Keeping the refrigerator running and the fans moving the air made life not quite as miserable.

3) Sleeping outside in tents or screened in porches can get downright chilly.  That's right.  When it's miserable in the house, it gets downright cold overnight in a tent.  We live in the outer suburbs, and felt quite safe sleeping in a tent.  Many of our neighbors spent the night outdoors, also.  It was a great bonding experience!

4) Solar Powered LED lights are a thing of beauty.  I have solar powered garden lights.  Put them out in the morning, they charge in the sunlight.  Bring them in at night, and they lit the house without danger of fire.  The only problem we had was that we couldn't shut them off! 

5) Hot showers are a wonderful thing.

6) Cooking can get tricky when the power is out.  We used our grill.  I experimented with our solar oven.  We have a propane camp stove that we used.  We also have a fire pit and cast iron cookware that we used.  The best thing about this is that we used it outdoors.  Yes, we have a gas stove, but we didn't really want to heat up a hot house by using a gas stove. 

7) Food at the store runs out quickly.  Since I am a home canner, we have a lot of food that was safely stored in the basement, ready to be heated and eaten.  I heard that the lines at the grocery store were long, and that they'd had to throw out everything from the freezer and refrigerated sections due to the power outage.  I stopped by the grocery store this afternoon, and a lot of the aisles are still very low.  According to the store manager, they've been wiped out.  They just can't stock the shelves fast enough.

8) This was an awesome time to meet the neighbors.  Spending time out of doors, trying to stay cool, heading down to the lake to fish, we ran into a lot of people we've only ever had a waving acquaintance with.  Nice to actually learn their names and talk with them for a while!

9) Solar Powered cell phone charges have moved to the top of my "must have" list.  My birthday is at the end of the month, and that's now the ONE thing I want.  Yes, we could charge it with the generator, but we had to pull a fan out in order to charge the phones.  Next time, we'll have a solar charger.

10) A hand cranked emergency weather radio is a very nice luxury.  Ours came from L.L. Bean.  It has an LED flashlight on the end, and gets bulletins from the NWS, as well as all AM and FM stations.  Just a few cranks would power the radio for quite some time!

I hope everyone who reads this is safe and sound.  It's been an interesting week in the Mid-Atlantic. Stay safe!