A derecho (day-RAY-cho) is a widespread, long-lived, straight-line windstorm that is associated with a fast-moving band of severe thunderstorms.
I've lived on the east coast of the United States all my life and I had never even heard the word "derecho" until a few days after one snuck up on us and beat us to a pulp. Now I'll never forget it. I've seen many storms, but this one was down right scary. During the storm we thought "this must be what the Lord's wrath is like." In the morning our area looked like a war zone. Huge trees uprooted or snapped off laying over downed power lines and crashed into houses on every street. Our power was out for almost a week and others still don't have any electric. All this during a heat wave with temperatures pushing 100 degrees and higher. All the banks and businesses were closed. You couldn't get cash, and if you were able to find a gas station open, you were gonna be there a while. We threw mountains of food out of our freezer and refrigerator - which I found more painful than the cold showers we were fortunate enough to be able to take. Generators were more scarce than the 1943 copper penny (rare and valued from thousands to millions of dollars). We had no contact with the media and no real idea what had happened or the damage it caused. Only our cell phones (not smart phones by the way) kept us in touch with family and friends, and we had to drive around to keep them charged. But I learned a few things from this nasty storm called a derecho:
1. We are woefully unprepared for an emergency event like this.
2. I need to do more canning and drying of foods and less freezing.
3. Our society is way too dependent on computers. They run most of our life.
4. I need to find out more about the Amish.
5. Don't put things off like laundry and vacuuming. Tomorrow you may not have electric.
There was a silver lining to all this though - the wind pushed our extremely heavy back yard play set over several inches revealing a large underground bee's nest in the sandbox where our children play everyday. A blessing indeed.
Needless to say we had a lot of cleaning up to do, and of course, no Internet. So crafting and blogging were put on the back burner for a bit. But My Creative Mommy is back and should be up and running according to schedule by next week.
Thank you for your prayers, and your patience.
Many Blessings,
Jana : )
