One the most powerful storms ever to hit the area. The lightning was continous for about 30 minutes. The winds were hurricane level. Trees are down all over. Crazy. No doubt fueled by the extreme hot weather recently.

Most people are still out of power. I am one of fortunate few who have it.

and had some t-storms associated with it just after midnight.

Watched the blob (I believe meteorologists call it a MCS - Meso Convective System) on radar earlier in the evening as it carved its way across WV and into VA & MD. That was definitely a nasty one. They expect another round possibly this evening.

That was crazy

Schools with roofs blown off, trees down everywhere, and lots of people without power.

Rain was so hard that I actually went out to see if it was hail hitting the windows.

With more triple-digit heat in the forecast, millions of people in the Mid-Atlantic area were without power on Saturday after violent storms with 80-mph gusts toppled trees, cut power lines and killed six people.

Ohio also saw up to 1 million homes and businesses without power Saturday morning due to the storm front overnight, and at least one person died there.

Five other deaths in recent days are thought to have been tied to the heat wave hanging over much of the nation, and forecasters warned of more dangerously high temperatures Saturday.

It should top 100 degrees in areas across 25 states, a heat scenario impacting 47 million people, the Weather Channel's Julie Martin said on NBC's TODAY show.

more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48024138/ns/weather/

for at least the next two days.

Check in on your elderly neighbors if in that area. I know my 84yo mother goes downhill fast in temps above 85.

Take care all and godspeed.

According to the radio, the storm was about 100 miles wide from north to south, and left a trail of damage from Indiana through Maryland and Virginia.

There were definitely hurricane-force winds. In our ares, central Montgomery County, MD, gusts of 65 and 70 mph were recorded.

I never saw so much lightning in my life. It was non-stop.

Three huge trees -- two pines and a Colorado blue spruce, from our rear neighbor's yard crashed down into our yard. One of them tore down quite a few branches from a big silver maple in our yard. Most of the blooming hostas in my shade garden have been smashed into hosta puree. One of the trunks is at least 18 inches thick, maybe more.

The mess is incredible. I went at it earlier with a set of hand clippers, but it would likely take me a couple of weeks just to cut off the small branches. Luckily nothing hit our house or the big tree immediately behind our house. We've been trying to call our insurance agent, but their line's been busy all day. We'll be low on the priority list because the tree companies have to deal with trees on streets, roads and houses first.

Our power was out for 14 hours but by some miracle, PEPCO got it back on about half an hour ago. However PEPCO still has 436,200 customers out in Maryland and DC.

There are more than 2 million customers out in Maryland, DC and Virginia. And a transformer just blew up 3 minutes ago somewhere in our neighborhood, so we don't know if the power will stay.

We will still have to toss out a lot of food from the freezer and refrigerator, but so does everyone else.

And we're expecting more strong storms between 4 and 8 pm.

One bit of good, I now have more than enough pine needles to mulch the blueberries.

and called our insurance company and they said the only way the clean-up was covered was if the tree had hit the house.

Hope your policy reads differently.

About 8 or 9 years ago we had a huge storm knock down four 60-80 foot black cherry trees like a set of dominoes. Our insurance paid for the removal back then, but I don't know if we've still covered for this.

Comfortable here, esp in my apartment, and power is on, hasn't been off, tho was off between here and MontCo.
Will see what happens later.
Daughter + her guy in car in P.G. last night were stopped when tree fell across Rte. 5, and they ran into it. They're OK; car a mess.

From Dr. Jeff Master's blog on Weather Underground:

There's a lot of energy stored in warm air, and the air just keeps getting warmer and warmer.

and amazingly the station announcer was up late at 1am describing how the station had limited power. Then I listened to DC's two all-news stations WNEW and WTOP. They also had non stop coverage of the storm. Luckily it's summer and my brother who attends Johns Hopkins University (that's in Baltimore) is home in CA.

And I wonder if Congress actually passing bills (transportation funding and the student loan rate) might have had a coincidental effect? Any damage to the Capitol grounds?

WTOP is a horrible station - all they do is blather, usually right-wing blather, and you never get to hear the news. When we moved here in 1990 I was surprised that the DC area had such mediocre radio stations. I am not interested in hearing wanna-be pundits talk on and on and on.

WNEW is more like the New York area stations I grew up with. It gives you the basics: news, traffic, weather,

I listened to Air America on 1260 from the day it came on until the day it stopped. Wonderful station, and I greatly miss it.

I actually have power but there are hundreds of thousands who dont. Very few stores and restaurants are open. The restaurants that have power have a mob of people waiting outside to get a table. We have about 20 "refugees" in the lobby of our apartment building since its nice and cool there. Traffic lights are out all over. Its a bit of crisis here. One of worst storms in recent memory.

Pepco is always caught unprepared in these storms. Driving around today it looked like a scene from Mad Max.

Thank goodness its a holiday weekend. Congrats on the power!

early evening. Now it is back on. Hopefully for good, but I am guessing they have to switch areas off as they bring new areas on to keep from causing surges and tripping breakers all over the place.

I live in Rockville, and gained power at 10:30 last night.

The stop lights and gas stations in G-burg are all going strong. They only lost power for a few hours Friday night.

So, if anyone in the area needs to cool off, go to the Gaithersburg shopping centers.

The Mall is off 355 about 3 or so miles north of the 370/270 interchange. At least that's how I go.

To all DU'ers without power, my heart goes out to you. One day and I'm completely drained.

Take care of yourselves!

Amanda

Comments

Hawkdriver1961 • 2 hours ago

This is what awaits America all the time if Obama is reelected. Using his power of decree with the EPA he is strangling energy production in this country. Many coal fired plants are shutting down due to their inability to meet the ridiculous air standards imposed by the EPA. Even natural gas fired plants are under attack by this administration. This is the new Obama's Nation people. Get used to it. Funny thing is though...you can bet every limousine liberal out there has their very own standby generator going out there. These things run on desel or natural gas. Apart from no internet if they use cable, these people are living just fine, while backing a guy who would love to see us go the way of North Korea in terms of providing electricity to its people. You keep that in mind rank and file Democrats....

Sam Huston • 5 hours ago

To the Gaia worshiping progressives, have you considered that this is God's response to your fanatical drive to deny the citizens of this once great nation’s God given rights enshrined in the Constitution?