You learn something new everyday. The new thing I learned was the meteorological term “derecho“, which is Spanish for “you should have bought that generator before you needed it”.
Apparently parts east of here, especially the Washington DC/Virginia area were slammed by the meteorological effect known as a ‘derecho’. Succinctly, its a tornoado that blows in a straight line, not swirly.
The media is kicking out the usual post-disaster photos and soundbites. People discovering that, surprise surprise, when the electricity is out the gas stations can’t pump gas. When trees fall, electricity goes down. When roads are blocked, traffic stalls. You know….Basic Preparedness 101 boilerplate……….
We had ourselves a little gust-fest the other day here in western Montana. Nothing as grand and powerful as what happened back east, but enough to remind folks that sometimes the wheels fly offa things pretty suddenly and when they do you have to be ready to step up and deal with it on your own.
You would think that after the countless billions of dollars sunk into ‘readiness’ programs, especially in the DC/NoVa area, they’d be able to get the roads cleared and the lights on much faster.
The moral of the story, naturally, is that when crap like this happens little things like stored fuel, a generator and some simple pre-planning can mean the difference between living life normally and sweltering in an uncooled apartment as you call your boss and tell him you’re missing work because your car is outta gas.
Somebody must have decided to start using the term since that wiki article says that the term’s been around for quite a while. It’s interesting that I’ve never heard the term used locally and the two pics from the article are from Minnesota (where I’m at).
Steelheart
WHAT? did you just say that when the power goes out you can’t get gas??? bahahahahahahahah!
your friend,
kymber
Apparently theyre drinkin’ ‘em early up there in Canuckistan this evening………
bahahahahahahah! hey it was Canada Day afterall!!!
That’s right, I forgot about that. Thats the day Canada celebrates it’s military dominance over….uhm…well, that’s the day it celebrates it’s world leadership in..uhh….no, wait, I got it..that’s the day they celebrate their economic superiority over the rest of..errrr….ok, I guess it’s the day the drink a lot.
Glad to have you back Skipper.. Just had the generator talk with a friend up that way last week. HE WASN’T READY TO GO JUST YET. i’M SURE THIS WILL LIGHT A FIRE.. CANUCKISTAN.. I LIKE IT!! JOE.
hello from the heart of derecho land. this thing wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t 100 plus degrees. learned that refrigerators don’t work well when its 100 INSIDE your house, even w/ a genny. many of the “prepared” weren’t. most w/ the gennies didn’t have gas. local station got b/u power but ran out of fuel. this is a good test of our “grid down” preps. we are pretty well set. was not prepped for the HEAT. i will purchase a small one-room a/c unit when this is over. other than that and the fact that i had 2 vehicles low on fuel (waiting for the price to drop again), we are surviving nicely. the yoyos sent most of the crews up to dc to keep the natives cool, so it’ll be a week b4 we get power, even though there’s little damage to the grid here. i feel sorry for non preppers. no wait, i don’t. you shoulda prepped instead of getting that newest iphone and 100 inch tv, jackwagon! yawl stay cool now, ya hear?
Derecho down here also describes the direction ‘right’ (i.e. —–>). No idea that meterorologists used this term as well.
Its funny when a weather ‘event’ can really screw up a person’s day. Its funnier when people who make fun of preppers don’t recognize the wisdom of being prepared for ‘just in case’. The joke may be on them though.
I don’t want to say I look forward to situations like these so I can feel smug among the naysayers, but sometimes I think maybe I’m not as upset as I might be………
Having spent way too much time in the DC/NoVA area, I am not at all surprised by their problems.
“Preparedness” remains something to be handled by “the government.” Preferably by the appropriation of tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars in taxpayer-provided funds.
Preparedness as an individual act? Or by a private company without a government contract and payments from the Treasury Department? Madness! Paranoia and lunacy from unqualified non-credentialed non-experts!
“Preparedness,” to the inside-the-Beltway mob, is to real preparedness as the TSA is to real security: one part political theater, one part wishful thinking, at least two parts opportunistic suckling at the taxpayer-funded teat…
Hot humid weather in the DC area is nothing new. Severe summer storms are nothing new. Power outages are nothing new. These are foreseeable problems. In fact, they are routine problems. But like most problems they require action rather than words to resolve, and DC exists to do two things: talk, and spend other peoples’ money.
Friend in the Columbus Ohio area said his neighbor a few houses down had his genny stolen the Friday night while they slept in the basement to stay cool. Thief broke into the shed, started up the lawnmower and took off with the genny and spare fuel cans. They didn’t realize it was stolen till early Sat AM when the lawnmower ran out of gas. It was just large enough to run their deep freezer and refrigerator and not their home AC unit. Several other friends were keeping in touch via smart phone saying they just got power back Monday afternoon or night. All of them also agreed that we prep for COLD weather TSHTF in Ohio, not heatwave TSHTF. Something to truely think about.