Midwest folks... How are we handling this Derecho?

jimbbski said:

It hit here about 4 PM, I'm near Chicago.  It mostly just took leaves and small dead branches off my and my neighbors trees. But just before it hit I lost power. There was no lighting at the time.  Most the the area was without power but some areas near by did. It must have just been the luck of the draw. I finally went to bed about 10 PM as there was nothing to do with out power.  About 2.30 AM my computer powered up and I heard the TV go on in the other room.  Got up and turned them off and went back to sleep.   That is all.

We're in Elmhurst. We didn't lose power for very long, but I had to run over to my inlaws this morning to grab MIL's computer and monitors to set them up on hour dining room table so she didn't have to run into the city to work today. They're still out of power and only a mile away. 

She has her volume on her notifications at the max. I'm about to move my office into the basement. Can't get a damn thing done.

Skies looked really gnarly yesterday afternoon. In the NW suburbs it's mostly downed branches. Didn't lose power at home or at work. Just a couple flickers.

(Dayton OH) SWMBO was leaving around 930pm and the rain was just starting.  20 minutes later it was a monsoon, sounded like my house was in a touchless car wash.  Little thunder/lightning but nothing serious.  Once again I'm glad I spent the big $$$ on the roof repair.  Florida room was nice and dry.

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

Daylan C (Forum Supporter) said:

Currently sitting in a Detroit suburb hotel room learning about this.
 

what Detroit suburb, and for how long?

 

 

Canton. And until the company finishes this project or I find another gig. (I am going home this weekend to take care of some things though. Coming back Monday)

In reply to Daylan C (Forum Supporter) :

Shut the front door! Canton is the home of AngryCorvair! Do you have a rental car? Text me at 734-six34-six566 and I'll send you the address. If you don't have a car, I can pick you up. Also, do you work for FedMog?

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

You should have a text from a 270 number.

In reply to Daylan C (Forum Supporter) :

Don’t let him make you work on the car. 

My son in Rockford, IL texted me that there was a tornado near there.

I lived in Omaha for 8 years before I got divorced. Derechos were just a part of living in the Midwest during the summer. What I didn't like was when the tornado sirens went off at 2am.

I hope you all made it through alright!

The one in 2012 hit the day we started moving into our first house. It knocked down 11 large tree branches and one entire tree on our block. Town lost power for 3-7 days depending on the part. This one must have faded by the time it hit western Ohio because it just got dark and rained a bit. 

About 25 miles   NW of Cedar Rapids here. 

Power came back on around 7 pm last night after quite a blow. Likely three trees lost at the vet clinic and maybe one at the house. The latter was about 30 degrees off vertical but I figured it with the tractor this morning-- we'll see if it makes it. 
 

Ever since the power came back, traffic has been quite high and the town (Vinton) has been a zoo with long lines at all the gas stations as people come in from the areas without power.

Land line phones at the clinic are pretty hit or miss-- mostly working for incoming calls but not outgoing. DSL is out at both the house and clinic, wireless data  comes and goes and there are a lot of dead zones.

Not as bad here as the 130 mph event we took right in the face here in 2011-- very little structural damage here, other than one neighbor's roof that's suffered before-- I think he needs to stop doing it himself.   This time the worst of it appeared to hit south of us-- looks like Cedar Rapids took quite a pasting

And a PS--

With the power back on and long lines at the gas stations, it's great to have the i3 to drive around!

11GTCS said:

In reply to Daylan C (Forum Supporter) :

Don’t let him make you work on the car. 

I might have been dumb enough to volunteer...

I drove my generator to Iowa last night for some friends and the damage is just incredible.

My friends live n Marion, IA which is NE of Cedar Rapids.  The winds folded a couple metal transmission line power poles, so they're saying possibly up to two weeks before power back.  They had every tree on their property go down, taking out a chunk of the house, his detached garage, a shed.

I'll probably be heading back over there this weekend to help cut up the trees.

Inlaws stayed with us last night. ComEd estimated their power would come back on Saturday. Luckily it was midnight last night. This is very good for my wife's mental well being. 

mtn (Forum Supporter) said:

Inlaws stayed with us last night. ComEd estimated their power would come back on Saturday. Luckily it was midnight last night. This is very good for my wife's mental well being. 

This is one thing I do enjoy about living away from family. They can never just drop in. 

My dad is 120 miles away in Tulsa. Mom is San Diego, her mom is in Phoenix, and her dad in Orlando.

FooBag (Forum Supporter) said:

I drove my generator to Iowa last night for some friends and the damage is just incredible.

My friends live n Marion, IA which is NE of Cedar Rapids.  The winds folded a couple metal transmission line power poles, so they're saying possibly up to two weeks before power back.  They had every tree on their property go down, taking out a chunk of the house, his detached garage, a shed.

I'll probably be heading back over there this weekend to help cut up the trees.

On your drive in/out, could you tell at about what point gas stations were open and had gas to sell?  We've got power and the gas stations are open, but they've got nothing to sell at the moment.

Local newspaper came in the mail today-- it looks like once you get about 10-15 miles south of here, if your grain bin was empty, it's gone now. Even if it was filled, you likely lost the top off of it.

This, plus the recent hurricane/generator threads has me looking more seriously at moving a permanent, whole house generator a few slots up the "to do" list. I can deal with no power for a few hours. Going several days would be a deal breaker, and most of the local support where I could go would likely be in the same position in that case.

z31maniac said:

mtn (Forum Supporter) said:

Inlaws stayed with us last night. ComEd estimated their power would come back on Saturday. Luckily it was midnight last night. This is very good for my wife's mental well being. 

This is one thing I do enjoy about living away from family. They can never just drop in. 

My dad is 120 miles away in Tulsa. Mom is San Diego, her mom is in Phoenix, and her dad in Orlando.

To each his own - I certainly understand your viewpoint, but I view it as a positive. My wife can walk to her parents, but her mom has MS and rarely leaves the house. This is maybe the 10th time she's even been inside our house in just under 4 years of us living less than a mile from her. Most of those 10ish visits were after our daughter was born, or after Angela's funeral. 

Her dad comes over a lot more often, but he usually comes bearing gifts of beer and often food as well. I'd say he's over about 3-4 times a week, but almost never for more than 10 minutes unless we invite him. Its nice. 

EDIT: Also, if we lived 120 miles from her parents and they had an outage, I'd bet that I would be running up there to help them out or else they'd be coming down here. My dad offered last night to drive 200 miles to deliver a generator. Some folks have toxic families, some folks have families that are great in small doses, some of us have families that are worth putting up with to see more often.

Karacticus said:

FooBag (Forum Supporter) said:

I drove my generator to Iowa last night for some friends and the damage is just incredible.

My friends live n Marion, IA which is NE of Cedar Rapids.  The winds folded a couple metal transmission line power poles, so they're saying possibly up to two weeks before power back.  They had every tree on their property go down, taking out a chunk of the house, his detached garage, a shed.

I'll probably be heading back over there this weekend to help cut up the trees.

On your drive in/out, could you tell at about what point gas stations were open and had gas to sell?  We've got power and the gas stations are open, but they've got nothing to sell at the moment.

Local newspaper came in the mail today-- it looks like once you get about 10-15 miles south of here, if your grain bin was empty, it's gone now. Even if it was filled, you likely lost the top off of it.

 

Unfortunately, I don't have any good feedback for you.  I met my friend in West Branch so I didn't get up your way at all.  Pretty much I've heard you have to drive north and west (CF, Waterloo, Dike, etc) to find anything.  If you have a Kwik Star anywhere near you, I heard they're trucking in gas from WI.