Best of Wishes for our neighbours south of the border

Torcan · Post by **Torcan** » Sun Jul 01, 2012 11:32 pm

I have heard of the horrible news of the nasty storm that dumped on Ohio, Maryland, Washington, D.C., Virginia and West Virginia.
Power outages that could last for days if not weeks. And the loss of life associated with this storm.

Thoughts and prayers for all affected, and to those members of this forum who had their boats in the line of this freak storm.

I think it was best described this way:
"Unlike a polite hurricane which gives you three days to prepare, this storm came out of the blue and just went wild with no warning"

Good luck to everyone.

prowlersfish · Post by **prowlersfish** » Mon Jul 02, 2012 8:59 am

Two nights 2 bad storms . ( I am in Va ) . But we did ok .

P-Dogg · Post by **P-Dogg** » Mon Jul 02, 2012 9:36 am

Thank you for your concern Torcan. Some people really got hit hard. South of Baltimore the power is still out, and might be for another week. Last I heard, there were 14 fatalities due to the storm, but based on the the number of people at Home Depot who looked liked they were about to buy their first chainsaw, that number may increase.

I was working on my boat in its slip on the Magothy River in the Chesapeake. Various meanings of the word "derecho" have been put forth around here. I can attest that the word really is derived from the Spanish phase "HOLY CRAP! HOLY CRAP! HOLY CRAP!" (paraphrased to suit our family audience), because that's exactly what I was thinking when I saw it. I grew up in Tornado Alley, so really big thunderstorms are something I'm used to. When I saw the gust front from this monster, I retreated to my truck and rode-out the biggest part of the wind, and what has taken a back seat to the wind damage, the LIGHTNING!

rossjo · Post by **rossjo** » Mon Jul 02, 2012 9:43 am

Tough storms. Hope all are well.

Like you said, Hurricanes have plenty of advance warning (but often spawn ff tornadoes when they're close).

captainmaniac · Post by **captainmaniac** » Mon Jul 02, 2012 12:32 pm

I was driving through Ohio, down I-75, just south of Findlay when it hit us. My wife and I were taking her father and his cousin down to Wapakoneta for a 60th wedding anniversary party.

The sky started looking weird and I noticed the headlights had automatically turned on (at 4PM!). It kept getting darker, then off in the distance to the west it was like there was cloud reaching all the way down to the ground - there was a wall you just couldn't see past. After a few seconds I realized that was a wall of rain heading our way.

Have no idea what the winds were that hit us, but stuff I read about he storm clocking winds at 70+, 80+ and 90+ mph in different areas. Worst storm I have ever seen, let alone being stuck on the highway in a SUV with the wind hitting broadside. We pulled over for a while (as did most of the other cars and tractor trailers on the road) and tucked in beside a stand of trees that protected us from the brunt of the wind. The entire time we were stopped I had one hand on the wheel and the other on the gear shift ready to throw it into drive and floor it if I saw any of the trees letting go. Fortunately, we only got pelted by rain, leaves, twigs and a few small branches. Nothing big came our way.

When things cleared up a bit we took off to try to get out of it before any next wave might hit - we only had 30 miles go to. Drove past one of the tractor trailers that blew over, then got stuck in traffic for another 20 minutes just before our exit as state patrol had the highway closed because of the next truck rollover.

We checked in to our hotel by flashlight since the entire town had lost power. Friday night's dinner was cheese & crackers, and beer.

The town was trashed. We saw trees with trunks as big as 2-3' wide snapped off 10' off the ground, other stuff uprooted, shingles missing, metal roofing torn off of barns and garages, windows blown out of store fronts. It is amazing that there weren't more people killed.

ready123 · Post by **ready123** » Mon Jul 02, 2012 12:35 pm

Was gusting up to 55 mph at our marina on the river, wind coming straight at the dock, first time I felt it was not an advantage to be on the first row)... Also first time I had to hold on to the posts as I walked down the floating dock to secure my dinghy it was moving up and down on the 2 foot waves with whitecaps

My buddy with his 55' houseboat had to stay out till the winds broke, a good 45 mins... his passengers were not so happy.

rossjo · Post by **rossjo** » Mon Jul 02, 2012 1:22 pm

I've been out on my back porch and watched 80-90mph winds hit ... and the F32 taking it at my dock.

Tie her down ahead of time - nothing you can do when the Hurricane hits.

TC · Post by TC » Mon Jul 02, 2012 1:50 pm

We left the dock early Friday morning and within half a mile noticed winds were much different for that time of day. We radioed our friends we were to meet 3 miles away to keep "options" open. At the first exposure to open water options were exercised. We were headed to Massassauga Park but decided to head inland, found a small cove and anchored on the west side, with our backs to the wind. Other than the trees dancing around for 3 days and uncomfortable rides in the dingy we had a pleasant stay. When we go away we like to exercise "radio silence", meaning AM/FM, (we do watch wx maps and wx broadcast) and didn't hear about any of this till just now when we got back to the dock. At the time we decided not to push it and in hind sight are glad we didn't.

TC · Post by TC » Mon Jul 02, 2012 1:52 pm

We left the dock early Friday morning and within half a mile noticed winds were much different for that time of day. We radioed our friends we were to meet 3 miles away to keep "options" open. At the first exposure to open water options were exercised. We were headed to Massassauga Park but decided to head inland, found a small cove and anchored on the west side, with our backs to the wind. Other than the trees dancing around for 3 days and uncomfortable rides in the dingy we had a pleasant stay. When we go away we like to exercise "radio silence", meaning AM/FM, (we do watch wx maps and wx broadcast) and didn't hear about any of this till just now when we got back to the dock. At the time we decided not to push it and in hind sight are glad we didn't.

TC · Post by TC » Mon Jul 02, 2012 1:53 pm

We left the dock early Friday morning and within half a mile noticed winds were much different for that time of day. We radioed our friends we were to meet 3 miles away to keep "options" open. At the first exposure to open water options were exercised. We were headed to Massassauga Park but decided to head inland, found a small cove and anchored on the west side, with our backs to the wind. Other than the trees dancing around for 3 days and uncomfortable rides in the dingy we had a pleasant stay. When we go away we like to exercise "radio silence", meaning AM/FM, (we do watch wx maps and wx broadcast) and didn't hear about any of this till just now when we got back to the dock. At the time we decided not to push it and in hind sight are glad we didn't.

TC · Post by TC » Mon Jul 02, 2012 1:53 pm

We left the dock early Friday morning and within half a mile noticed winds were much different for that time of day. We radioed our friends we were to meet 3 miles away to keep "options" open. At the first exposure to open water options were exercised. We were headed to Massassauga Park but decided to head inland, found a small cove and anchored on the west side, with our backs to the wind. Other than the trees dancing around for 3 days and uncomfortable rides in the dingy we had a pleasant stay. When we go away we like to exercise "radio silence", meaning AM/FM, (we do watch wx maps and wx broadcast) and didn't hear about any of this till just now when we got back to the dock. At the time we decided not to push it and in hind sight are glad we didn't.

TC · Post by TC » Mon Jul 02, 2012 1:58 pm

I can park a 16,000 pound boat but can't run a Playbook. Help!

ready123 · Post by **ready123** » Mon Jul 02, 2012 3:16 pm

TC wrote:I can park a 16,000 pound boat but can't run a Playbook. Help!

Playbook

no wonder

summer storm · Post by **summer storm** » Tue Jul 03, 2012 9:14 am

Underway in the alligator river between markers 24 and 26 on Sunday when we got hit. 60 MPH winds and lightning all around us. Lasted over a hour and a half before it started to calm down. We got hit by lightning and the maydays on the radio kept coming in from small boats in the area. 3 boats capsized a couple of miles from us and 4 people died on land. After we pulled into alligator marina a 55 ft sailboat came in and the guy just walked off the boat. I asked him if he wanted to tie it up a little better and he said he could care less about the boat, he just off as fast as he could.

it's a bad photo but this was the view out of the wheel house windows at 4pm . Notice the windshield wipers going so fast you can see double.