A Storm...

On Friday afternoon, an intense, long-lived windstorm called a "Derecho" formed in northwest Indiana and began carving a path of destruction over 600 miles long. Winds approaching 100 miles per hour were reported during the most intense part of the event (between Fort Wayne, IN and Columbus, OH.) At the peak of the event, the Fort Wayne International Airport observing equipment observed a peak wind gust of 91 mph, and the observer reported seeing a downburst descend from the cloud directly ahead of him.  Winds were as strong as an EF-1 tornado over a widespread area which resulted in immense damage along the storm's entire path. {taken from the National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office}

According to the Storm Prediction Center, "A Derecho (pronounced similar to "deh-REY-cho" in English) is a widespread, long-lived wind storm that is associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms. Although a Derecho can produce destruction similar to that of tornadoes, the damage typically is directed in one direction along a relatively straight swath. As a result, the term "straight-line wind damage" sometimes is used to describe Derecho damage. By definition, if the wind damage swath extends more than 240 miles (about 400 kilometers) and includes wind gusts of at least 58 mph (93 km/h) or greater along most of its length, then the event may be classified as a Derecho.

Joe was at work while the kids and I climbed into the bathtub in our rental house.
I pulled Owen's baby mattress out of his bed, and
set it beside the tub in case I needed to put it over the top of us. 
Thankfully, I did not need to use the mattress.

Our trampoline was a loss.
The camper suffered significant hail damage.
The garden we had worked on throughout the summer
was not going to produce much anymore, if at all.
We were without electric for over a week.
Our flowers were pelted with hail and wind-blown to pieces.
We were all a little shaken and scared, 
but our lives remained and we lived to tell the story.

{post written on 11/1/2012}