Monday just after noon we had a storm move through causing serious damage in maybe a dozen counties. Straight line winds unofficially 112 mph and lasting for an hour.
I had never seen the like here. Trees down all over town. Power poles broken off. No telling how long to get power back.
Very little data access.
Geez Bill - that's just weird. Looks like we were thinking along the same line at the same time. Hope you're ok. What a mess! It was just picking up a head of steam when it came through here a 11 am. I think I heard it took out a 700 mile swath.
We had something similar in late July 1986 or thereabouts.?ÿ I think the local weathermen referred to it as an inland hurricane.?ÿ Came out of the northwest and torn the heck out of things for about fifty miles in a straight line and maybe twenty miles wide.?ÿ Missed us but not by much. One sight I will not forget was a metal building used as a roller skating rink that had built less than ten years earlier looked like the Jolly Green Giant had a giant can opener and decided to open most of the roof.?ÿ The batts of glass fiber insulation sucked out of there littered the tree tops for miles.?ÿ Near where the storm played out was a cemetery with many old cedar trees that acted like a giant comb to pull airborne objects from the slowing air.?ÿ What a horrible mess.?ÿ An elderly lady who lived in a county seat town hit directly took a lawn chair and went out to sit in her (rented) backyard to witness the little storm roll by.?ÿ She picked a spot directly beneath a fair-sized dead tree in the fence line.?ÿ A bit later the lady was dead with a huge limb nailing her and the chair into the ground.?ÿ A local surveyor was called on by the insurance companies involved to determine who owned the tree or, at least, how much was owned by each owner of the lots on either side of its base.
Fired up the generator now to run the refrigerator, so can also charge phones and power the DSL modem. It connected tonight. Wouldn't after noon. Cellular acces has been iffy.
Also used the generator to run electric chain saw. We lost big limbs/upper trunk from two trees, and I now have them in pieces we can move.
Not sure if gasoline supply will last until power back on. I've used 1/3 of what we had. Without power, gas stations can't pump. People reported only one station between Waterloo and Iowa City could pump, and I'm sure they are empty by now.
Damage on our street included 3 houses with tree hits, some sheds, and lots of trees. House next door had a tree fall on a 3-season porch and knock it off the posts holding up the end. Tore it off the house. I went over and shut off the gas at the meter because the pipe to outdoor grill broke. A bunch of neighbors got the hole in the house covered today.
The Los Angeles Times described it as a "derecho".
Is your generator hooked into the Dryer outlet? My son hooked me up with a cord that plugs in where the dryer plug is supposed to go. ????
Is your generator hooked into the Dryer outlet? My son hooked me up with a cord that plugs in where the dryer plug is supposed to go. ???? ?ÿ
I'm just using extension cords. You have to remember, while everything is chaos, to disconnect at your main breaker to keep from trying to power the neighborhood. Linemen have been killed by people back feeding a receptacle and not getting themselves isolated from the utility company feed.
Plus, you probably don't want to try running everything in the house unless you have a large generator.
The Los Angeles Times described it as a "derecho".
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that is Espanol for straight.
@bill93 People around here found out about them in 2012
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_2012_North_American_derecho
@james-fleming yep, I remember that. I think we were home in Illinois when that hit. It was like a freight train out of nowhere.
at least with a hurricane you have plenty of notice.
yes, saw lots of damage from family and friends in Iowa and Illinois. That was one scary storm. It knocked over a 60' concrete silo at my buddy's farm.
Not to be an ambulance chaser; but...
- "The progressive derecho tracked across a large section of the Midwestern United States and across the central Appalachians into the mid-Atlantic states on the afternoon and evening of June 29, 2012"
- "On Aug. 16, 2012, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray established the Mayor??s Power Line Undergrounding Task Force"
- "Dominion Virginia Power has an impressive underground plan that was initiated in 2014 that ultimately could replace up to 350 miles of power lines per year at an annual cost of $175 million."
Regionally over $500M in power under-grounding projects since the the 2012 storm..all needing engineering and surveying.?ÿ ?ÿ
A local surveyor was called on by the insurance companies involved to determine who owned the tree or, at least, how much was owned by each owner of the lots on either side of its base.
I've done a couple of those killer-tree insurance surveys.?ÿ It's sobering stuff, even though the carnage is cleaned up long before I come on the scene.
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Fortunately the first tree stump survey I had to do for an insurance company was funny in a way.?ÿ No people, just structural damage.?ÿ A tree that appeared to be right on the assumed property line by both parties had about half of it rip off one night in a storm and completely demolish the front porch of the house on the north.?ÿ It turned out to be fairly close to half and half after taking about forty shots around the stump and establishing the property line that sliced through it.?ÿ Both property owners had the same insurance company and that was who called me.?ÿ They wanted to assess how much of the liability was on each of their policy owners.
From the images I've seen there will be a grain storage problem in and about the Derecho. Many of the metal bins and loading equipment were empty awaiting this years harvest. Its easier to crush an empty pop can than a full one.?ÿ?ÿ
My 92 year old Dad has turned into such a chicken. In the old days, he would have hopped in the truck to go find it. Yesterday, he was cowering in the basement with his gold coins. No damage and the bright sunshine aftermath was confusing.?ÿ
Ha...that's easy math:?ÿ Customer 1 + Customer 2 - ( the Square of the policy limits of the Surveyor we just conned...er, uh I mean hired to add to the total liability pool so we can maintain our lofty profit goals for the next two quarters.....)
Insurance companies and lawyers always get paid. Even when they lose.?ÿ
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That being said, it does seem that it could be an interesting study in who's most responsible with that pesky tree.....the roots on my side or the branches on yours......
No one ever sues God or Mother Nature for a settlement.....although I keep seeing this French Guy?ÿ "Force Majeure" mentioned when I read contracts....?ÿ ;)?ÿ
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Hope your down time is minimal Bill.?ÿ These things are a testament to how lucky we are to be alive in the great big 'ol world that we live in.
We got lucky, just brushed us. ?ÿI saw pics where large corn fields were just layed flat. ?ÿI know northern Illinois got it much worse than we did.
I thought that homeowner's insurance policies were uniform on this. The liability and the tree belong wherever the tree lands. The exception is where the homeowner whose property does not contain the tree has disclaimed liability to the tree's owner in writing before the tree fell.
We had a similar problem during one of our state-wide hurricanes a few years ago. A tree between my property and my neighbor's property fell across the power line into his house and ripped off the meter and all of the hardware on his house. The line was on the ground so the power company couldn't restore power through that transformer until his house hardware was restored and the line reattached. Now his real problem was that he had opted for a high deductible on his homeowner's insurance and was looking at $5,000 out of pocket to fix the problem.?ÿ
So he demanded payment from me. I told him to contact his lawyer, he did, and that afternoon electricians were restoring his destroyed hardware. I never heard any more from him.
Of course, the ownership of the tree was never established because it had no bearing on the liability.
It may be different in other localities, but in NC, the source of the tree doesn't matter.
Things are improving here. Some parts of town have power. I don't yet. Wife went to work today. I filled gas cans with no-alcohol grade. Some grades were out, but a tanker arrived as I finished.
City crews are still working to get all streets open. Garbage pickup will start after that. Then debris pickup will take a LONG time. Streets near me are open but piled along sides with brush and limbs. Chain saws singing everywhere.
Sounds like you're coping pretty well. Best of luck and let's hope it doesn't last much longer.
