Midwest Derecho Winds August 10, 2020

[enduring]

OMG, Did we get the wind! we got hit with some reports of 116mph gust and the whole thing just lasted soooo long. Went through the state of Iowa, reportedly started around Omaha, just west of the Missouri River. We have so much tree damage and haven't even started getting that cleaned up. The nearby town is just getting out from under massive downed trees, after 2-3 days. We still don't have power after 4 days. And by the way, that is why we put in the wood stove, LOL. Wrong season for a power outage. Running the tractor powered generator. I am powering my router and this computer with the generator, as we also power the freezer and fridge. Camping stove to make my morning coffee. Thank goodness that there has been good weather since. We have 2 grain bins blown away, old windmill in the field bent over to the grown. A 200 +


year old bur oak really took a hit, but still standing with about 25% of its limbs missing. 30-40 foot fur trees in the wind break tipped over, about every other one. Old cedars planted in the 30's cracked over about 1/2 way up the trunk. Machine shed roof, gone. 60 year old large hackberry cracked at the trunk about 8 feet from the ground and missed, by a fraction, the fuel tanks we have on the farm. Power tangled in other tree limbs. The rural coop electric company has contracted tree service to trim these away, and we got that service done yesterday. The winds blew our old block silo down too. The upside to that is that it missed the barn, now we don't have to pay to have it taken down, which was on the wish list for several years, and I have patio pavers now!

House INTACT!

We have a slightly tilted chimney that just went in this spring. It is a stainless steel insulated stack that connects through the roof and to a flex insulated liner. What do we need to do to find out if it is safe. That is the only thing that seems to be amiss with the house. All the trees missed the house!

Since this was such a large impacted area, what did you folks experience?

 

[Sawset]

Several years ago I was visiting Choteau MT, just after they had 113mph winds come through. Apparently they get them fairly often in the form of a kind of chinook winds off the mountains. The forcast for the week was 60mph winds, gusts to 90mph, every day, all week. Not much in the way of damage. A couple roofs were pealed back, but they looked like needed replacing anyway. What it boiled down to was, anything that could blow away, did so long ago, and things that did get damaged at the time either needed repair to begin with, or were left out by mistake. Leaving a boat parked in the yard would end up pasted to the neighbors garage, garbage cans by the house gone, chimneys or antennas unsupported were toppled, etc. But next time since they were already gone, then no damage. The trees all looked beat, knarly and sparse.

 

[Lakeside]

Wow -- Thanks goodness you and your family are OK.

 

[JimBear]

I

OMG, Did we get the wind! we got hit with some reports of 116mph gust and the whole thing just lasted soooo long. Went through the state of Iowa, reportedly started around Omaha, just west of the Missouri River. We have so much tree damage and haven't even started getting that cleaned up. The nearby town is just getting out from under massive downed trees, after 2-3 days. We still don't have power after 4 days. And by the way, that is why we put in the wood stove, LOL. Wrong season for a power outage. Running the tractor powered generator. I am powering my router and this computer with the generator, as we also power the freezer and fridge. Camping stove to make my morning coffee. Thank goodness that there has been good weather since. We have 2 grain bins blown away, old windmill in the field bent over to the grown. A 200 + View attachment 262197View attachment 262199View attachment 262201

year old bur oak really took a hit, but still standing with about 25% of its limbs missing. 30-40 foot fur trees in the wind break tipped over, about every other one. Old cedars planted in the 30's cracked over about 1/2 way up the trunk. Machine shed roof, gone. 60 year old large hackberry cracked at the trunk about 8 feet from the ground and missed, by a fraction, the fuel tanks we have on the farm. Power tangled in other tree limbs. The rural coop electric company has contracted tree service to trim these away, and we got that service done yesterday. The winds blew our old block silo down too. The upside to that is that it missed the barn, now we don't have to pay to have it taken down, which was on the wish list for several years, and I have patio pavers now!

House INTACT!

We have a slightly tilted chimney that just went in this spring. It is a stainless steel insulated stack that connects through the roof and to a flex insulated liner. What do we need to do to find out if it is safe. That is the only thing that seems to be amiss with the house. All the trees missed the house!

Since this was such a large impacted area, what did you folks experience?

I’m glad you folks are ok, it looks like a mess. We just had some 30-40mph quick bursts here. I went up to Boone & helped my son with storm cleanup, fortunately he only had one 18” oak limb clip his roof. Their power was restored about 12:30pm on Tuesday. On my trip up most of the damage started north of I-80. Several communities that I passed they had a lot of damage to trees, homes & buildings. They estimated about 10 million acres of crops were affected by the storm in Iowa. I believe that storm rolled thru Illinois & into Indiana.

 

[Gearhead660]

We were on the northern edge of this one. Didn't get the wind but got dumped on, 2-4 inches of rain. Good to hear you're alright.

 

[moresnow]

OMG, Did we get the wind! we got hit with some reports of 116mph gust and the whole thing just lasted soooo long. Went through the state of Iowa, reportedly started around Omaha, just west of the Missouri River. We have so much tree damage and haven't even started getting that cleaned up. The nearby town is just getting out from under massive downed trees, after 2-3 days. We still don't have power after 4 days. And by the way, that is why we put in the wood stove, LOL. Wrong season for a power outage. Running the tractor powered generator. I am powering my router and this computer with the generator, as we also power the freezer and fridge. Camping stove to make my morning coffee. Thank goodness that there has been good weather since. We have 2 grain bins blown away, old windmill in the field bent over to the grown. A 200 + View attachment 262197View attachment 262199View attachment 262201

year old bur oak really took a hit, but still standing with about 25% of its limbs missing. 30-40 foot fur trees in the wind break tipped over, about every other one. Old cedars planted in the 30's cracked over about 1/2 way up the trunk. Machine shed roof, gone. 60 year old large hackberry cracked at the trunk about 8 feet from the ground and missed, by a fraction, the fuel tanks we have on the farm. Power tangled in other tree limbs. The rural coop electric company has contracted tree service to trim these away, and we got that service done yesterday. The winds blew our old block silo down too. The upside to that is that it missed the barn, now we don't have to pay to have it taken down, which was on the wish list for several years, and I have patio pavers now!

House INTACT!

We have a slightly tilted chimney that just went in this spring. It is a stainless steel insulated stack that connects through the roof and to a flex insulated liner. What do we need to do to find out if it is safe. That is the only thing that seems to be amiss with the house. All the trees missed the house!

Since this was such a large impacted area, what did you folks experience?

Glad to hear your home is in good shape and your all safe. My sister lives in CR and they lost a couple cars from downed tree's. Tree's on the house etc. No power there. Running there freezer and fridge in shifts with the genny. Sharing the gen with the neighbor. No gas for the remaining cars. No cell. No fun! Welcome to the midwest. At least they are unhurt like yourselves.

I am just north of Hwy 20 and had nothing but gentle rain and wind. The storm looked like it was going to really blow up and impact us but it did not. Counting our blessings.

Take your time cleaning up as the weather looks rather warm. Good luck to all that were impacted.

 

[begreen]

Glad you are ok. Derechos can be deadly. There were a lot of major grain silos and cornfields flattened in Iowa by those winds.

 

[WoodBurnerInWI]

We got very lucky here in Madison, it all seemed to pass to our south. My parent's back in MI, not so lucky. Berrien Co, MI just got clobbered by that storm! They are still without power (my dad bought a generator), probably won't get it back till tomorrow, maybe. Trees down, damaged homes all around the town. I guess there were fires all over from power lines broken by falling trees. They lost a bunch on their 4 acres but thankfully non hit their house. The neighbor? Eh, not so lucky. Big old oak tree decided it was time to come down, on their house. With another segment of that tree deciding their cars weren't worthy either. He burns wood too like my parents I think he'll be good for a long time for firewood! Sucks about the damage though.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Back in 2013 we got hit the the straight line winds.. Trees down everywhere. Half my neighbors shed wound up in my yard. Clean up was for days. We were out of power for 8 days in the end of June. It was hot too. I had my generator running 24-7. After 6 days the power went on.. there was a wire hung in in some trees across the street and the woods caught fire.. Had to cut the power. Finally got it all squared away.. People I know actually moved out of state to Delaware until the power went back on.. but they're not the do it yourself.. live off the land kinda people.. I slept in my own bed and it was 70 in my house...

 

[WiscWoody]

I saw something on the news about the corn crop in Iowa taking a major hit from the storm. More bad news for farmers after trying to stay above water from the tariffs.

 

[Stinkpickle]

We just got power back on today, thankfully. I tracked down a generator on Tuesday, but only to keep our refrigerator and freezers going. We holed up in the house, and without TV or internet access, I didn’t realize how bad it was. The good news is that there are years of wood available now.

 

[Corey]

Hope everyone is doing OK. Hardy bunch in Iowa, so I suspect so. Have step family in the Cedar Rapids area, and one over toward Chicago - all of them took some damage from trees down. One lost a deck - crushed under a tree, one fam had an old hickory tree come crashing through the living room and down into the basement - luckily all were out at work at the time. Sad part is none of them have wood heat so they are setting the wood out for pick up. I urged them to make craigslist posts for firewood! But power has been out for days, so computers/internet are a little hard to come by. Everyone doing what they can to clean up.

Around here, about 10 years ago, the wind stopped for a day, and everything fell over. But any time you start heading into the high double or triple digit wind speed, a lot of damage is going to happen.

Stay safe and healthy!

 

[Stinkpickle]

We got extremely lucky, even with the extended power outage. I haven't found any real damage to the house, and we only dropped some small limbs. But go two blocks in any direction from my house, and you'd find massive toppled trees blocking roads, resting on power lines, and snapping poles.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Hope everyone is doing OK. Hardy bunch in Iowa, so I suspect so. Have step family in the Cedar Rapids area, and one over toward Chicago - all of them took some damage from trees down. One lost a deck - crushed under a tree, one fam had an old hickory tree come crashing through the living room and down into the basement - luckily all were out at work at the time. Sad part is none of them have wood heat so they are setting the wood out for pick up. I urged them to make craigslist posts for firewood! But power has been out for days, so computers/internet are a little hard to come by. Everyone doing what they can to clean up.

Around here, about 10 years ago, the wind stopped for a day, and everything fell over. But any time you start heading into the high double or triple digit wind speed, a lot of damage is going to happen.

Stay safe and healthy!

perfect time to put in a stove

 

[enduring]

When we get power on, and I Can use my WiFi, I will respond to your sincere posts. Thank you so much for your replies.