The Derecho Storm 

Yes, on Friday evening a huge derecho storm system moved into West Virginia.  A derecho storm is a widespread and long-lived straight-line windstorm that is associated with a fast-moving band of severe thunderstorms. Derechos are generally convection-induced and take on bow echo form of squall line as seen on the radar above. Glenville is where the red pin is located.  Trees were down everywhere and 85 per cent of West Virginia was without power.

A big problem in restoring power was that over 65 huge transmission lines were destroyed as you can see from this one near Ellenboro.

After the storm had moved through leaving destruction, the sky was an amazing vivid red.

We assessed the damage and found that our damage was minimal compared to others. 

 











We had two huge limbs that broke from a large hickory on the hill.  (Remember, last week in the blog that we related the removal of a dead hickory by our house. Good move on our part!)  One of the limbs was very close to the pond and to the house.  Shawn Steele is a good friend and came by to help us.  To keep the tree from rolling on the house, he climbed the downed branch and tied it to a large tulip poplar.

After working for about 4 hours the stubborn tree finally came down.  Even though it landed upright in the pond, we found that the liner was not damaged.  Another of many blessings during this period.

Since the power was out for an extended period, the koi had no aeration.  The temperature reached nearly 100 degrees.  That was too much stress for the larger koi.  We lost 5 fish that measured around 28 inches.

Shawn was successful in conquering the stubborn hickory limbs.  This man has impressive strength and skills.

Now the cleanup begins.