Derecho:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derecho
I thought of each of you Iowa members and wondered who might have been in it's path. I also wondered who else in the states to the east might have been caught in it. Leon, it sounds pretty bad for you. I have straightened leaning bldgs. before, up to 18" of lean with a twist was the worst. Let me know if you need a brain to pick.
That one that came through this area, and it's path cut straight from Missouri about 750 miles away, was in June '12. I never heard of these before. I have a story, as I was caught in it's path, yet below it's direct shot.
It was a Friday evening just after dark. I had set up at the Harpers Ferry Flea Market that evening, gone into the Mexican restaurant for dinner, and was checking out the cruise-in at Home Depot. The DJ said something about shutting it down due to the weather and I didn't know what he meant. Then my girlfriend called saying severe weather was coming. I thought, ok, thunderstorms so I headed back to the flea market. I was in my '85 Jimmy with soft top, sides rolled up. On my way back it started spitting rain and I hurried back and put the sides down. It wasn't hardly raining, so I kicked back against the folded rear seat with a beer, tailgate down, rear piece of the top flipped up, and was looking at the light show of lightening across the mountain in Maryland while talking to a truck site buddy in KY a while. Then came hard rain sideways and a lot of wind. I closed the back all up and told my buddy I thought I better get off the phone, some severe weather was coming on. That Jimmy was rocking like a cradle. The flea market was on an old drive-in movie site, so nowhere to go like a basement. Best thing to do was stay put and hope the Jimmy didn't start flying. I felt like I was in a tent held down by a Jimmy. All I could do was hope it landed on all 4s if it got lifted. It went on so long I laid down and tried to sleep with it rocking back and forth. As it started to weaken I fell asleep.
I always wake up early. I headed out to get coffee toward Charles Town. The first light was working and the convenience store was lit up, seemed normal. Got my coffee and went back. By then the vendors should have been starting to show up, but nobody. I noticed a lot of small branches on the ground. Finally a couple vendors showed up way after the sun was up. They didn't live far away and they told couldn't get there from here stories. A whole string of powerline poles down, tree across the road, etc. And no shoppers at all. I think it was around noon before things got somewhat rolling, but very few vendors and shoppers.
You had to be in it's path to be affected, and on a certain elevation. Low placed still had plastic lawn chairs sitting upright. High places had trees uprooted and not much of anything unharmed. My girlfriend just west of Charles Town had no evidence in her area. When I went home on Sunday, nothing happening in my area. I had all the house windows open and nothing got wet. It had traveled into Washington, DC and knocked power out thread and everywhere in it's path. The whole grid was destroyed in it's path. Took a couple weeks to get all power restored. A crazy kind of storm to be sure
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_2...erican_derecho