Derecho


So yesterday, around 6pm, I was sitting by the front window writing an email to someone. Outside, there was steady rain pouring down one second, the next second rain slewed sideways in waves. Visibility dropped to ten feet, just far enough to see the flagpole in our front yard bending over. The winds sounded like a freight train rushing past. All around the house, the sounds of trees snapping and crashing. The crunch of metal and glass as something hit a car. The lights went out. 

The storm lasted two minutes, maybe three, and then it passed. The rain still coming down seemed almost gentle. I ran outside to pull down the flag. Our house and car were completely untouched. (We had someone thin our trees out and cut a couple down when we bought the house.) The neighbor's car was smashed, but all the trees missed houses. One tree had the bark blown clean off it. There were power lines down in the street, and more lines sagging under the weight of fallen trees. Our whole block was dark.

The power crews came out almost immediately, so as the sun went down there were swirling orange lights and the sound of chainsaws and power tools. Rae and I read books by candlelight and hand-cranked lanterns.  Lights finally came back on around 4:30am. 

All in all, a pretty interesting evening.

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© C.C. Finlay 2018