Mother Nature sneezed on us yesterday!

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Yesterday was a very annoying day. We had a storm system move through our area, a system weather experts call a "Derecho". It's a rare event, even more rare than a tornado. It's a fast moving straight-line intense thunderstorm system with winds of between 50-92 mph. We hit 94 mph according to the wind gauge at the airport. It hit our area at about 5:45 am yesterday morning, by 6:00 am we had lost our electricy and were bailing water out of our basement. By 7:00 it was over, just a few remaining light showers. My husband left for work at 7:15, he travels thru 3 connected cities to get to work, and within a few minutes he called me from his cellphone to tell me there were trees and/or power poles down on every street and nobody had power. He would probably be sent home from work if they had no power in the building where he works. The waited a short while to see if the power would come back on but it didn't so they sent everyone home. I was listening to a local tv station which also broadcasts on radio on my little battery operated radio/cd player and the damage I was hearing about was just incredible. Several people called into the station to tell their story or what they had seen during the storm and it was just scary. One guy called in to say that he was driving to work when it hit and couldn't see to drive because it was raining so hard. So he pulled underneath an overpass to wait it out. He had his car in park and his foot on the brake but the wind was so strong it turned his car sideways about 30 degrees!Another caller said that her son worked at a local sandwich shop and the building has been moved off it's foundation! Now remember this was not a tornado, just straight-line winds. The stories kept coming in of downed power lines, thousands of trees downed, many onto houses, power lines or blocking roads. Semi-trucks and trailers that had just been blown over onto their sides blocking roads. What a mess. They said that just in our local area 118,000 homes and businesses were without power. So we were without power for 13 1/2 hours yesterday. I'm was absolutely stunned that they got it back on that fast. I was expecting it to be off for a couple of days. We came out of it in pretty good shape. Only a couple of branches down but no damage to the house, garage or vehicles. Although it made for a very boring day with no lights, tv, or computer we were incredibly lucky. I came to a conclusion that I would have no problem living for a long period without lights or tv but I really would miss my computer!I heard on the radio that the power company was bringing in crews from all over the state and neighboring states too. Chain saws were buzzing all over the entire area and it was very nice to see so many people helping their neighbors remove downed trees from cars and homes and helping the city crews clear the streets. Many of the towns hit by the storm just got cleaned up from the major flooding that happened a few weeks ago. So we got a double whammy this year. Amazingly enough there were only 2 deaths, only a few major injuries, and a few minor injuries as a result. The deaths and serious injuries were all in one family. The story that I got was a family, Mom, Dad, 4 kids and their new puppy were on a camping trip and in their tent sleeping when the storm hit. The parents started to get the kids up and were getting ready to head for shelter when a tree fell on their tent. The really ironic part was they had moved the tent under the tree yesterday for shade because of the heat and bright sun was making the tent too hot. Their 4 yr old and 9 month old baby were killed along with the puppy. The other 2 kids were in serious condition but the parents only had minor injuries. I just can't imagine the pain they are going through. My husband is home again today, still no power at work. It's good to have him home but the short paycheck is definitely going to hurt us. I just hope he can go back to work tomorrow. Today I heard that the path of destruction was about 60 miles wide. It had actually started as thunderstorms around Omaha, Nebraska. It picked up strenght as it headed across Iowa and by the time it hit us here in Eastern Iowa/Northwest Illinois it was a monster. It continually lost strength after it passed us but went clear to Chicago. That's one heck of a storm that I like to call a Mother Nature Sneeze.