I have realized I never stated the status of our storm a few weeks ago. This storm, called a derecho, according to NOAA is likely to happen every four years. However, everyone in our local area says they had never heard of this type of storm and other than a Hurricane, have not experienced anything like it.
This storm started in the Chicago west area and quickly ran across the states toward the Atlantic crossing through the DC area. A derecho system is set up when a combination of extreme high heat and pressure is present and being pushed by another jet stream of slightly cooler temperatures. The addition of the extreme high heat is what propels the storm from being a typical summer thunderstorm into a derecho. The fast moving storm, with repeating rain clouds, and pressures can produce winds clocked to be that of hurricanes.
Our outcome was worse than that of our hurricane last year, late August 2011. The way our house is situated around the grain fields, I can eerily hear winds coming. The grain fields, lack of trees to slow them, creates a low ground in the 200 acres which is forced up our property line where it smacks into our house. These winds, up to 70 m/hr, are typical in winter where they have produced huge snow drifts around our home. The wind we received from the derecho was clocked at 79 m/hr not far from our home. The weird thing, I heard it coming! I was lying in bed talking to Karl as he was returning from calming the kids because we lost power just a few minutes before the storm actually hit. Everyone was armed with their flash lights, as I was starting my calculations of how much water we had in the house. Funny how vulnerable how one feels when they fear not enough water or are compelled to estimate how long one can go in their house with current water supplies. Since our well pump uses electricity, water is the weak point we succumb to needing to plan for. I have about 1 1/2 cases of water bottles in the basement to be used for power outages, soccer games, and impromptu outings/cookouts. Back to our storm!
I told Karl I could hear it coming, even in the rural area, it is amazing how quiet it can be without electricity. The air conditioning or fans are not providing a soft background hum typical of those hot summer days. But this time, even the bugs and frogs were quiet, like they knew they needed to hunker down. Why we don't keep a pulse on nature around us until it is too late is one of those deep moment thoughts one only thinks about post a weather event. Like before a Tsunami, wild and domesticated animals sought higher ground, they knew! Karl went over to the window. With my eyes drifting into exhausted sleep, I murmured, "It's coming." and a pause before, "It's here." Just a few seconds later, the house was slammed by the force of the winds. Karl exclaimed that trees went from standing straight to a 90 degree angle. I crawled out of bed to look out the big window as Karl crossed to look out another window facing the back of the house. I could feel the force vibrating the windows to an uncomfortable point to where I thought about how much force would be needed to break the glass.
"I think we should go to the basement," I said in my now awakened state but wishing I could just go to sleep. Karl and I had just spent the evening cutting up about 8 chicken carcasses from our trip earlier that day from the farm. We have to cut them up before we freeze them, dividing them into freezer bags and filling the space with home made marinades, a trick I learned from Rachel Ray to marinade items while they thaw at a later date. It takes us about 2 1/2 hours from start to bleaching down the kitchen clean up. When you don't start until 8:30, it becomes a long night. I even through some of the carcases in a crock pot to make stock overnight. It was not until an hour later that I remembered this and transferred the carcasses to a large stock pot with extra water on the gas stove top on lower setting.
"I think we are OK," Karl responds, "It's not that bad yet." Just as those words were leaving his lips, another strong gust came up and smacked the house again; only this time, it knock a piece of siding off and it smacked the window that Karl was standing looking through. Karl jumped back from the window and quickly changed into his Navy Officer self ordering us to the basement. The kids just happened to be moving towards our bedroom when the order to retreat came. Armed with a few pillows, flashlights, and a couple blankets, we scurried down the two flights of stairs. Bella asked about the dogs to which Karl said in his controlled but not harsh officer voice to leave them in their kennels, they are on the main floor of the house.
In the basement, I started picking through the camping gear to find the large LED lantern, and a couple sleeping bags to place on the concrete floor. The floor, much cooler than the house, had an uncomfortable coldness at the moment. Interestingly how one's mind can drift to thoughts of how I wished I had a safe room with comfortable sofas in the basement for just such occasions. I only think of it when we are there for tornado warnings or in the present state of a really forceful storm. Karl and Anton would try to peek through the thick blanket of darkness to see what is happened outside in front of the basement sliding doors. I think this is one of those curiosity cat moments and asked Karl if they might be safer to come away from the windows.
When the brunt of the storm, typically the first 30 minutes of a storm front where the pressures and winds are most volatile, starts to even out, I too joined them in trying to peer into the darkness. One can quickly learn the just so angle of a LED flashlight against the window so as not to produce a reflection. Since I am one of those see the whole picture then the details kind of person, I noticed something was not right in a sweep of the light beam through the back area. "Where is the trampoline?" I said softly mostly to Karl but little ears were pricked up and soon everyone was trying to search through the blackness. It became a quest. First Karl, then Anton ventured to the main floor to see if they could spot anything. Karl was more concerned about the solar panels, but the missing trampoline gave him a concerned thought of the trampoline smashing a few solar reflectors. This baby has not been paid off yet, so it would be heart breaking to loose one or more. Apparently this concern grew to the point where Karl went outside to check the panels. Anton followed to the covered porch, just to check on the chickens.
"The solar panels are fine, but no sign of the trampoline," Karl reported when he returned to the safety of the house. "I can't see much out there, so we are going to have to wait till it is calmer or morning to see how bad things are from the storm." We thought of playing cards, but soon the exhaustion kicked back into our bodies as the adrenaline was wearing off. Karl and Isabella were laying on camping pads, but I couldn't get comfortable. So I went to the main floor and laid on the couch. That was when I remembered about the chicken. Then one of the smoke alarms had to beep to let me know it was on battery power not hard wire. By the time I tracked down this offending smoke alarm, I decided to try to venture out to assess the damage.
What I found:
Missing trampoline and not trace of it.
One apple tree broken at the ground level.
Three pieces of siding off of the back of the house.
Lots of my perennials laying on the ground.
Branches strewn around, but mostly on the neighbor's yard.
Some broken branches on fruit trees and lots of fallen apples the chicken will love on the ground.
One outdoor lamp on the garage wall twisted upside down.
I was still trying to find the trampoline and was searching in the flashes of bright lightening, but there was little rain at this point. Then a loud clap of thunder, so loud it shook the ground, told me to get back into the house.
In the morning, while Karl was reverse wiring a set up for the generator to power some of our house, including the water pump but not the A/C, I started to make coffee in the French press. Karl needed a hand, so told me to wait just a few more minutes and he would have given us power to run the coffee maker.
I contacted one of our friends who have a pool to see if we could come over to keep cool, the temp was expected to be over 100 and I figured our pool would be closed due to power outages. She said to come over and bring a chain saw because they had a large tree down across their driveway. As we were getting ready to leave, Anton found the trampoline. He made a video of tracking it, Karl jokingly calls it The Blair Trampoline Project. (Once I get the video off the camera, I will upload it to the blog.)
Needless to say, it is not salvageable. Karl says it was an Act of God that the trampoline missed the garden. Honestly I can say, we had more damage from this derecho than from last years hurricane. I was also more prepared for the hurricane because of the advanced notice. I had had the tubs filled with water for the hurricane before the power was off, lessening that water issue. Our power came back on Saturday night. Karl was worried because he was leaving with Anton for Scout Camp on Sunday afternoon and would be gone for a week. He left me detailed instructions on how to set up the generator to power the water pump and then disconnect it when I needed to in specific steps. We lost power three other times that week but it was not long enough that I wanted to pull out the generator and do the set up. It was only out for 1-6 hours, the longer time being overnight.
OK the burning question about why no power with the solar panels. We are not "off grid", in other words, we have not installed the power cell batteries in order to store our solar power. When we are generating power, it first gets used immediately by the house and the rest is sent back up the line to the power company, the meter running backwards. Without the battery storage system, we need power to run the converter to change power from DC/AC or AC/DC, I am not sure at the moment which way it works as this is Karl's baby being the Electrical Engineer. I just smile and nod my head at the right times when he gets all excited about the inner workings of the system. He gets a better response from Anton and his Home Schooled friends who wanted to have a field trip to our house to learn about solar energy. Hey we all have our strengths, I can tell the slight differences between 40 shades of pink and dissect Shakespeare into common English.
