Greater DC Area Storm Check-In

[Jay 2K Winger]

For those of you living in the greater Washington DC area, you may remember the big damn storm that blew through last night. Lots of thunder and lightning, and lots of high winds. It's left anywhere from 1.5 to 3 million people without power.

We were some of them until about twenty minutes ago. We lost power last night.

It's pretty creepy in a house when all the lights and humming electronic devices suddenly shut off. And with the AC shutting off as well, in the middle of one of the worst heatwaves for our area in recent memory? Not pleasant.

Especially not when the AC in my car stopped working yesterday afternoon.

I slept downstairs (my room is always warmer than the rest of the house), woke up with a cramp in my left leg. Fell back asleep, woke up with a cramp in the other leg.

Still, we're on public water, and have a gas water heater and gas stove, so we could at least use the toilets and take showers.

We were set to go find a hotel with power and AC to stay at until the power was restored-- and my Dad was literally going to one to see if they had rooms available-- when the power came back on.

Huzzah! You don't appreciate what you have until it's gone.

Anyone else have anything to report?

[Seraph]

oh drat, didn't see this at first!

Checking in here, I live, we all live, but mein gott, lots of trees just literally SNAPPED IN HALF. Although, we got the one tornado in our town, in our neighborhood, behind our house. XD

[Sapphire Silk]

All that crap has gone north of where I live, thank goodness (well for me, not anyone north of me).

The heat has been terrible and my central AC is broken. I bought a portable AC from the Orange Apron and it does OK for one end of the house. The other end (where my computer is) is miserable.

[Kanalah]

In-laws live up that way. We haven't been able to get ahold of them yet.

Hopefully one of the brothers or sister in law picked up mom, she's 85 and lives alone.

I'll feel better when we can reach someone.

[Sapphire Silk]

I'm just thanking God this heat wave didn't happen LAST year when Mom's AC was broken and she was out of her mind with Alzheimers and a UTI. It would have killed her.

There have already been some heat related deaths. I'm going on vacay tomorrow, and am a bit worried about Taz. Fortunately, my niece is coming by daily to feed, water, and check on her, and make sure the portable AC is keeping her cool.

[FormerCallingCardRep]

I am not in the DC area, but in West Virginia. I am at the office right now and the power just came back on here. Home is still in the dark. We had unofficially multiple tornados touch down in the area. There are some areas that look as though a bomb went off in the trees along the road

[Jay 2K Winger]

We had a flicker yesterday evening, apparently. But the lights are still on and the AC is still running.

Saw a lot of storm damage elsewhere yesterday and the day before while driving around. Fences knocked down, a lot of downed branches. One rather big damn tree in someone's front yard had been knocked clean over-- roots and all-- into the yard of the house next door. (Thankfully for that house, the tree hit the yard, not the building.)

Also saw that a tree had been broken and knocked over by the winds in a parking lot of a school-- right onto a car that had been parked under it.

Also saw a power pole that had been broken.

[Seraph]

I am not in the DC area, but in West Virginia. I am at the office right now and the power just came back on here. Home is still in the dark. We had unofficially multiple tornados touch down in the area. There are some areas that look as though a bomb went off in the trees along the road

Its exceptionally difficult, surprisingly, to get an official word on tornados. If I remember correctly, you have to have a verified meteorologist get a look at it, plus multiple camera angles, and then they actually go out to the site and check.

We had several in our area, but they're probably not verifying them, because of the fact that nobody took videos, they all just ran for cover.

[Kheldarson]

Checking in for Kabe and I. We're in WV and still without power. Several power poles came down in the neighborhood. Yay for free wi-fi and my nook.

[FormerCallingCardRep]

I have been worrying about the two of you. We got power back yesterday afternoon, but there is still many areas near us that does not have it

[Severen13]

Nothing much to report. Just lots of wind and rain.

[Ironclad Alibi]

We live in the middle of north Arlington. I was up Friday night when the storm hit. Our power flickered a bit but didn't go out. Around midnight we lost phone and Internet service. The Internet came back around 2:00 p.m. Saturday, and the phones came back late Saturday night. The people across the street are still without power.

[Kheldarson]

We're now on day 10 of no power. Currently hiding at a friend's house to get some laundry done and to get out of the heat. Paper says our area will be 95% done by today. Seeing as we've still not seen any crews in our area despite living next to the biggest shopping area in this city i'm thinking we'll be in the 5% getting fixed later this week.

[FormerCallingCardRep]

My boss was told that it may be next weekend before he gets power back. They are still trying to clean up the downed trees and power transmission towers in the area

[Kheldarson]

Kabe's aunt went to the media about it and was on tonight. Apparently AEP told her we didn't have a problem. I drive under or around unsecured downed lines. And we don't have a problem?