Ho-lee crap. After suffering through a day of 103 degree (that's 110 heat index) weather, the massive wind and thunder storms that ripped through the mid-Atlantic made their way to Alexandria at roughly 10:30pm, and their presence was undeniable. As the winds started to pick up and we watched the big red blog on the radar descend on the DC metro region, we knew we were in for a doozy. Luckily we had the foresight to prepare by lowering our patio umbrella and hastily remove the 4th of July buntings from the front of our home.

With just seconds to spare, the storm hit full force, bringing hurricane-force winds and driving rain. We watched from our bedroom windows as our new curbside tree was bent to a 45 degree angle from the winds. We held our breath, hoping it wouldn't be uprooted and sent sailing down our street. As we were watching the scene unfold outside, the driving rain brought a steady stream of water pouring in through our window sash. As I pulled back the curtains, Alex ran for paper towels while cursing the fact he hadn't finished the new storm windows. Lulu lazily watched the scene unfold.

We fought the battle against the rain for roughly an hour. A roll of paper towels and some elbow grease later, we're happy to report were able to keep the water from damaging any of the plaster, shutters, floor, or curtains.

Best of all, after the storm blew through, the temperature had dropped some 20-30 degrees. I dozed off with lightening flashing in the distance while Alex trolled Twitter for information on the Amazon Web Service outage that was affecting Instagram, Netflix, Pinterest, Reddit, and other major websites. It was all caused by the same storm, and he's a big nerd like that, so he was having his own little fun.

When we awoke this morning, we quickly realized we were one of the lucky few still with power. More than 2 million people in the area are without due to the storm, and temperatures are expected to reach nearly 100 again today. As a result, Alexandria has declared a local emergency. Four storm-related deaths have been reported in the area.

We did a survey of our yard and surrounding homes. Our back yard had a lot of leaves, branches, and debris that required cleanup, but we're happy to report no damage.

Just outside our back wall, we discovered that our garbage can as well as a neighbor's had been tossed about. 

We were very happy that we had lowered our umbrella. Our neighbor had kept hers up, and it landed in a neighboring yard. So we did the neighborly thing, retrieved it and returned it to her.

A stone's throw from our back gate we also discovered a large branch had come down from a neighboring tree. Luckily, no one was parked in the spots below. 

We headed out to the farmers' market this morning and surveyed some of the damage around town. Other streets didn't fare as well as ours, and there were lots of fallen limbs and trees.


This tree came clear out of the ground, blocking the entrance to an adjacent parking garage.

Lucky for those parked, a crew had already cleared a path.

In addition to the photo above, the other large fallen tree we witnessed was this one.

Though all of this damage was very evident, it didn't discourage people from getting out and about this morning. The Farmer's Market was in full swing and the restaurants were packed with people who were seeking a bit of relief from the loss of electricity.

Alexandria had a great response to the storm with workers busy all around cleaning up fallen trees and getting everything back to normal. Times like these make me very happy to live in a city that springs to action when necessary.

All in all, we're thanking our lucky stars that we made it through the storm without any damage. We've been glued to the news all morning, and can't believe how severe the damage is in other parts of the metro area. It's a good reminder that when Mother Nature is in a bad mood, we'd all better take caution and take shelter. 

Were you affected by last night's storms? Did your home sustain any damage? 

Comments 10

Comments

Margie
6/30/2012 at 4:18 PM
Glad you are alright. Guess we know what project you will be tackling next Alex - storm windows. That same storm came through our area about 4:30. Jim had a close call with a huge falling branch on his way home from work. He was able to swerve to avoid having it crash through his windshield. It only glanced the back of his car. He said for a split second he thought he bought the farm.
Wendy
7/1/2012
Good grief!! I'm so glad he saw it and was able to get out of the way. That's defensive driving at its best.
7/1/2012 at 1:29 AM
We're in Ohio this week and the storm hit us around 6 p.m. There was a lot of really close thunder & lightening, but the rain wasn't that heavy and we didn't have much wind. Unfortunately, The Husband's company was knocked offline and he's been playing catch up ever since.
Wendy
7/1/2012
Glad you didn't experience the brunt of it, but sorry your husband has had to work as a result.

Were you visiting your sister? Hope things are going well with the house! I can't wait to see how those floors turned out. :-)
7/2/2012 at 1:03 AM
Yeah, visiting my sister. Tge floors are as good as they can be without replacing them. Previous owners made interesting decisions. :-(

We got hit with a HUGE storm while we were at Cedar Point today. HUGE.
7/2/2012 at 9:17 AM
We lost power at about 11:45 and had to cuddle with the puppies. This was Isis's first storm and she did not like the thunder and lightening.

We were out of power all day on Saturday - by 5p the temp had reached 85 inside. Outside, we were lucky - a couple of small branches came down, a bench and one trash can were turned over, the eggplant and sugar peas feel over, and the blue hubbard vine was moved around. It was all easily fixed and nothing was permanently damaged. To cool the pups down, we went to Lowe's and got them a kiddie pool to play in, which they loved!

Our area was one of lucky ones, we got power back on Saturday evening while we were out for dinner and cleanup appears to almost done now.

Glad that ya'll made it through unscathed!
Cheers!
Wendy
7/2/2012
Sorry to hear you lost power, but that's great news that you're up and running and nothing was badly damaged!

Lulu had some fun playing in our Target "party pool" yesterday as well. A/C or not, it was a great way to cool down and have some fun. :-)
7/3/2012 at 7:22 AM
Glad to hear you all made it through this mess ok. We are still without power and there is only one road open in and out of our neighborhood due to downed trees. We made it through without damage thankfully, but our neighbor three doors down wasn't as lucky. A 100' oak tree went through his roof.
Wendy
7/3/2012
Oh my gosh! So sorry to hear you're still without power, and that's terrible about your neighbor's house. Two of my coworkers cars were totaled by trees, and another had a tree come through her roof.

We're counting our lucky stars this week!
threadbndr
7/6/2012 at 8:24 AM
Gosh, that's the kind of storm that often hits here in the midwest accompanied by tornados (UGH). Glad to hear that you all made it through OK and hopefully the other readers all have power back now.
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