what we experienced in DC this past weekend is called a
DERECHO . Winds from 0-60 in no time flat. I just happened to see something on Twitter around 9pm on Friday saying, prepare for major outages, power up your devices etc. I plugged in my cellphone and texted xsboy who was over a friend's house, just to make sure they hadn't gone to the pool or something. Within an hour, and with no rain, thunder, lightning etc. the lights started flickering, a noise like a train, and then the power was out and it was raining and the wind was wild. Heard something coming down behind the house, but it didn't hit it. We have humungously tall trees behind the house that are always the object of concern. Sleeping on Friday PM even without air wasn't too bad, i was able to sleep upstairs with no trouble. We had to clean up major debris from the yard on Sat. I could find NO COFFEE anywhere. the dunkin donuts at Fairfax circle had lines and people coming out with boxes of donuts, but they had no coffee. THIS was something i had not taken into account in my end of the world planning. INSTANT COFFEE is a necessity! xshub found a garage open doing inspections for xsboy's vehicle, since the inspection was up on Sat. Then he went out in search of gas for xsteen's car, and came back with Starbucks. We went out to eat and got gas in my vehicle. xsteen's boyfriend was with us and xskids all went back to his house afterward bc he had gotten power back. xshub started calling hotels around 9pm on Sat PM and not even the ritz carlton at $325 per night had a room, so we were stuck. Sleeping in the basement was not bad though and at 1 am i was awakened by the computer in the guest room down there powering up. we were back in business. Thank the Lord. Still have a boil water order in effect from Falls Church, where we get our water. Tons of people still powerless.