Everyone in MD, DC and VA OK?

[rockm]

I hope everyone that got hit by the massive storm on Friday is OK and their bonsai made it through with no damage.

I didn 't take heavy damage from the storm, but I managed to wreck my back trying to get trees under shelter just before the thing hit us. The storm packed huge wind gusts of I'd say 80-90 mph and hail--a recipe for disaster for bonsai. I had about half an hour warning of the storm's severity.

My neighbors up the road had a huge 50 ft white pine tree dropped on their cars and house. Damage around me was moderate (I lost a shutter to the wind--it's probably somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean now, or possibly in the U.K. or France ), although there was heavier damage near here.

Sitting in a house with no electricity with outdoor temps pushing 104 was no picnic, but we got power back Saturday night. Sleeping on the cement floor in the basement didn't help my back. I'm lucky though, other areas won't get their power back until the end of the week...

 

[berobinson82]

We seemed to have lucked out. Besides a terrified toddler, the only serious damage at the house was a small piece of siding getting ripped off. Luckily; we only lost power for about an hour on Saturday due to repairs. I still had to water my plants on Friday! Lucky this time.

 

[Poink88]

Praying for all of you (and your trees) guys!

 

[Redwood Ryan]

My trees and I all made it through okay. Luckily my power only went out for about 5 hours. I've got friends who still don't have power. NOVEC is usually pretty quick about restoring power. I didn't even realize the storm was that bad. I was at the movies with some friends when the power went out and delayed the movie by about 20 minutes. But hey, got free tickets to another movie

 

[rockm]

"I didn't even realize the storm was that bad."

Believe me, it was. I was outside when the wind started. Huge sustained gusts, bent big trees almost parallel to the ground. I've seen 75 mph winds here with hurricanes. This was a lot worse. Watched the transformers on the power poles on my street blow up in succession. I've never seen the night sky CONTINUALLY illuminated by electrictal activity. The sky stayed almost completely lit (sometimes brightly, sometime dimly) by electrcity--either from lightning or exploding power grid material for almost half an hour...It was freaky

 

[mcpesq817]

Like Rockm, we had about a half hour warning of the storm coming on. Luckily I was watching live TV at the time (usually I'm watching shows recorded on my DVR, so I was very fortunate), and saw the announcement. I ran outside to move some trees to safety, but ran back inside after only getting a few trees in. I've been through bad storms before, but never have felt as scared and nervous as I was on Friday night. The wind was whipping around huge trees and lightning was everywhere. Thankfully, all I have to deal with is a neighbor's maple that fell on my garage (no damage to the garage). Somehow, all my trees were fine. I had a large branch crash onto one of my benches, but amazingly, I had just moved a bunch of the JBPs that resided there to my porch to decandle them a few hours earlier. Not sure what I did to deserve that good karma. My particular area was probably one of the hardest hit in the region, with gigantic oaks and maples uprooted and causing damage everywhere.

Oh yeah, and no power since Friday night and a weekend of 100 degree temps Minus the heat and some inconveniences, in most respects it hasn't been too bad for me as I have gotten in lots of quality family time. I just try to keep it all in perspective that it's not as bad as what the folks in CO are facing and other areas hit by recent natural disasters.

 

[Poink88]

Rockm,

I can relate, I was in Guam when typhoon Paka hit with (supposedly) gust to 236 mph, breaking 30" diameter concrete power poles like toothpick... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/40579.stm The number is disputed but seeing cars piled on top of each other (3 layers up) makes me believe it. BTW, the US Air Force wind gauge broke after getting the 236 mph reading so it could be higher.

No water for a week and no power for a month (over Christmas and New Year)...though Hawaii and California sent their electric crews to help the recovery efforts.

 

[JudyB]

Don't forget Ohio...
Not much warning before it hit, but I did manage to get the bonsai into the windhouse so they all are fine.

We got thru it without any massive damage at our place, just a couple trees down in the pasture. And bonus, we got some rain that we've needed. We had just gotten power back when we got hit with another one with winds just as high yesterday, and lost it again. But there is far greater damage in parts of Columbus, -on our generator hunt yesterday (mom and dad's quit on them) we saw some houses with gigantic trees fallen on them. Some people got trapped in their cars with fallen wires around them for 3 hours on the Friday storm. Most people won't get power back here till Saturday or so, but that was the estimate before yesterdays storm blew thru...
But I think the fires out west are heartbreaking.

 

[Kevster]

And Delaware. We had electric the next afternoon but many won't till this week. Lots of down branches. Not so many down trees but several in my area had broken half way up. Loads of lightning strikes and fires caused by them.
As someone stated earlier I too had to water my trees the next day.
Oh and my vegetable garden looked like it got rolled over by a steam roller. Spent most of Saturday righting all those plants and picking up branches. Only had one tipped pot only due to me letting the tree grow wild and tall.

 

[Smoke]

Shows you just how small a community bonsai is when an area that large can be hit with wind that strong and less than a dozen people comment on the storm....
crazy.

 

[Good_Ol_JR]

In Winchester here. I actually had very little warning only about 15 minutes as the storm progressed over the mountains and turned North quickly. Several of my trees were blown off benches and I moved a bunch to the ground in the beginning of the storm but I got lucky, no pots broke, trees were uninjured. A bunch of pots lost soil but I replaced it before the sun hit the next morning. No major tree damage at my place but plenty all around me.

 

[rockm]

"Shows you just how small a community bonsai is when an area that large can be hit with wind that strong and less than a dozen people comment on the storm....
crazy. "

Might be that it's because half a million more people in most of Va. (not only No. Va.) are still waiting for power. More are out in W.Va., MD, PA, DE and other states. Cable companies serving the areas also took a hit...

There is no Internet without electricity...

 

[JudyB]

So funny here that it's getting spotty enough, that my WL internet is up, but we are still on a generator. Crews are out working everywhere, in this heat. They are working hard to get us back on. Bravo.

 

[Bob O]

All OK here in Newport News, I was sleeping when it came through here but woke up quick. Power was not out very long. I had some "miracle" trees sail halfway across the yard and set down upright with no damage at all. A few others got an emergency repot the next morning.
A six inch thick limb from one of my shade maples got ripped out of the tree, skidded across the top of the house, over my greenhouse, and dropped onto open yard. The area did have a good number of large trees come down but all in all everything was ok.

Bob O

 

[goosetown]

Really glad to hear that, so far, everyone and their trees are all good. I nearly lost my mind leaving this past week to go to Palm Springs with my trees in the hands of my friends, who did a great job watering for me. Can't even imagine what you guys were experiencing at the hands of mother nature.

Having lived in PA, VA, OH, CO and KS growing up, I'm all too aware of the power of summer storms...but this last round just sounds particularly nasty. Hang in there the rest of the summer, all.