Bad Mid-Atlantic Storms

[TheCommandTent]

Millions across the mid-Atlantic region sweltered Saturday in the aftermath of violent storms that pummeled the eastern U.S. with high winds and downed trees, killing at least 13 people and leaving 3 million without power during a heat wave.

Power officials said the outages wouldn't be repaired for several days to a week, likening the damage to a serious hurricane. Emergencies were declared in Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, the District of Columbia and Virginia, where Gov. Bob McDonnell said the state had its largest non-hurricane outage in history, as more storms threatened. "This is a very dangerous situation," the governor said.

I hope all our fellow GrogHeads in that region are doing ok.  When you get your power back on stop in and let us know you are alright.

My brother is near Lynchburg VA and lost power.  They say he might be without it for up to a week.  The temp. reached over 100 degrees F. there today.  His wife is 8 months pregnant so they had to go to a local emergency cooling center for the day.

Again another example of how vulnerable the electrical infrastructure in this country is.

[Capn Darwin]

Same mess here in central Ohio. Could be a week before we see power again. Even looks like a couple funnels may have danced through here too.

[Staggerwing]

I also hope everyone in our extended Grogheads family is safe. After spending a week-plus without power last summer I know how drastically it can affect one's life. I wish our power infrastructure had early-on adopted the habit of burying lines underground as is done in other countries. A little harder to maintain but far safer from Mother Nature.

[steve58]

I'm up in northern Virginia, came through the storms OK. Things got iffy enough that the wife and I headed into the basement for 30-40 minutes or so. Lots of downded trees in our neighborhood, but we were spared the worst. The worst that happened was that we lost cable/internet most of the afternoon today...good thing we didn't lose power or AC because I get real pissy without my AC. On a more realistic/sadder note, there were at least 3 people killed in Virginia due to the storms, and at least 12-15 natiionwide.  Hope everyone else came through OK...

[TheCommandTent]

I'm up in northern Virginia, came through the storms OK. Things got iffy enough that the wife and I headed into the basement for 30-40 minutes or so. Lots of downded trees in our neighborhood, but we were spared the worst. The worst that happened was that we lost cable/internet most of the afternoon today...good thing we didn't lose power or AC because I get real pissy without my AC. On a more realistic/sadder note, there were at least 3 people killed in Virginia due to the storms, and at least 12-15 natiionwide.  Hope everyone else came through OK...

Glad you are ok and didn't lose power.

[TheCommandTent]

From the same storm.  Apparently it was a bad night to be on the grounds crew at this minor league game.  Check out of the video in the article.  The wind just tears the tarp off the field with the ground grew inside.  I am surprised they stuck with it so long.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/tarp-attack-minor-league-grounds-crew-swallowed-during-200547119--mlb.html

[MetalDog]

I suspect LB and Smuck, along with any others I am not aware of, were hit by this thing.  All of you are in our prayers and we hope to get you back soon.

[bob48]

Hope you Grog's all came through it intact. Not quite to the same scale, we had an icredible storm in the NE on Thusrday, with 2 weeks rain falling in an hour. Flash flooding caused havoc on the roads, closing down motorways and thus long tailbacks. It took me 2 hours to get home, a 5 mile trip which usually takes around 20 mins.

Friday morning saw our work premises flooded and computer systems down, local server gone up in smoke, so we were only able to work with a reduced Disaster Recovery service provided by our I.T. Dept in Southampton, who are building a new server for us over the weekend.

Even the poor old Tyne Bridge caught a lightning strike, which someone captured on camera, and is pretty spectacular. I'll see if I can post a link to it.

[bob48]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/video-watch-lightning-strike-tyne-944263

[Staggerwing]

Has anyone heard from LB? He hasn't posted to his FB page either for a few days. I just noticed that Smuck hasn't posted here or to FB either. Has anyone talked to either one? Who else is absent?

[bayonetbrant]

LB is off w/ family stuff in Missouri.  His house might've take some damage, but AFAIK, the family's OK.

Smuck's area is dealing w/ a lot of power outages.  I haven't talked to him, but I talked to another friend that lives about a mile away.

[Staggerwing]

Thanks for the update. I hope Smuck&Co are making out alright. Same for LB's house...

[OJsDad]

We got hit with this storm at about 4:30pm on Friday.  There were about 7 semi's blown over in the storm in our county alone.  One was close to us, which caused all of the traffic, including other semis, to try and find their way round small county roads, a lot blocked with down trees.  We've seen a lot of uprooted trees, barn roofs and doors torn off.  No damage at our house, and except for a 1hr power outage yesterday and some shorter power hiccups, we've kept our power.  Which is better than others;

American Electric Power is estimating it will take a week to restore power to nearly all Hancock County customers. More than 15,000 AEP customers in the county were still without power Saturday night, following Friday's fierce storm.

More than 80 percent of AEP's customers in Putnam County remained without electricity Saturday, but outages dwindled in Hardin County.

About 40 people were staying Saturday night at the Red Cross emergency shelter at the Hancock County Senior Center, 339 E. Melrose Ave., in Findlay.

"We are planning on keeping the shelter open as long as needed," said Red Cross Executive Director Todd James. "As more families begin cleaning up and discover major damage to their homes, we anticipate our shelter population will increase for the next day or two."

Others without power sought refuge in hotels, restaurants and movie theaters.

AEP on Saturday said 90 percent of its Hancock County customers should have power back by midnight July 7.

In other area towns, AEP estimated that power to 90 percent of customers will be restored at:

• Kenton: Midnight July 4.

• Lima: Midnight July 7.

• Ottawa: Midnight July 7.

• Upper Sandusky: Midnight July 3.

The utility reported Saturday night that 523,000 customers across Ohio remained without power after Friday's storm, 50,000 less than earlier in the day.

It will take five to seven days to restore most power, AEP said. The storm had confirmed wind speeds in excess of 80 mph, the utility reported.

In Hancock County, AEP made some progress Saturday. As of midnight, 15,873 customers, or 54 percent of its customers in the county, were without power, down from 19,676 customers in the morning.

According to AEP's website, the outage figures at midnight for surrounding counties are:

• Putnam County, 9,108 customers without power, (86 percent).

• Allen County, 20,136 customers (44 percent), down from 27,333 earlier.

• Wyandot County, 2,930 customers (45 percent), down from 4,086 customers earlier.

• Hardin County, 1,501 customers (13 percent), a big drop from 5,175 earlier.

[Barthheart]

Geez hope all you Gorgs in the affected areas come out OK.  :-[

[bayonetbrant]

To follow-up on OJs post - Capn Darwin w/o power right now, too, but they're working through it.  He posted a picture of them at McD's this morning, enjoying hot food and cold air.