Have you experienced a drecho?

Yes. I live near Chicago. Several in my lifetime. They can be very damaging over a big area.

Yes in 2012. I don’t remember much about the storm itself but the aftermath was a sight to see.

I’ve definitely heard of straight line winds.

I have never seen so much damage as I did in the Cedar Rapids area in 2020 after the derecho.

Yes, like jenjie, it was in 2012. My parents and their community were without power for several very long, hot days. They got the brunt of it, but we did not. I remember going to dinner in a nearby community and the local grocery store was giving away huge bags of ice to those who needed them. And pretty much everyone needed them since there was no A/C, no electricity for fans, etc. Miserable!

The one that went through Iowa in 21 was a doozy. I watched it start, and our winds were minimal, but the clouds were something to behold. It passed over without much damage to us - but picked up force as it passed across the state. I had a family member in eastern IA have severe damage with trees through their roof. Sustained winds of 120 MPH for over 30 minutes. They said it was awful.

I've lost buildings and trees to high winds and small tornadoes. I have seen many nearby tornadoes and even been in a building that took a direct hit from one. The tornados are fast - boom - here and gone. But having to sit through 120 mph winds for 30-40 minutes would be awful!

That one that went through the Dakota's, Minnesota and North Iowa earlier this week was just above me. I got about 90 seconds of a high wind. I was prepared and had everything put away. One lawn chair flew across my farm yard, but no branches down. Then we had some well needed rain. I was thankful we were spared from worse.

Was it the same one that we encountered in MOCO?  We lost power for a week.  My parents didn't (also in MOCO) and so we went and stayed at their house.  We were one of the last homes to get the power restored so my husband ran after a truck and convinced the guy to come and repair our line.  A tree had fallen on the line and no one had bothered to fix it. We applauded after they fixed it.  

It was really scary when it was happening.  It was at 10 pm at night.  The sky was glowing green from all the transformers blowing and it was constant lightning.  The only other time I have seen something like that was in Vegas.  There was a storm and lightning zipped all around the sky for hours.  It was really strange.

yep, 2012, although I could have sworn it was in 2006

Yep, last year. Our neighbor's trampoline ended up on our fence and other neighbor lost most of their siding. It later came out that there were a few EF-0 tornadoes with that storm, and one went basically through my back yard...as we stood at the back door watching. Oops.

One hit our area shortly after we moved here in 2012. It caused massive destruction in northern WV, and my mom was out of power for 12 days. Fortunately, she had a back-up generator for her house, so she and my brother (who has an intellectual disablity, is on the autism spectrum, and is in a wheelchair due to CP) still had AC. She had elderly relatives and a couple of neighbors who came to her house for relief because NO ONE had power in the area for several days. It wasn't cheap, though. I think it cost her about $75/day for the propane to run the generator, but she said it was worth it. My brother has such extreme anxiety and does not handle heat at all. He would have been extremely difficult to deal with that long without AC.

Because I had been through an extended power outage before, I was very grateful that we never lost power after the derecho in 2012. If we had, I probably would have packed up the kids and moved into Mom's basement for a couple of weeks.

We were out of power for about a week after Hurricane Fran when we lived in NC, but we were able to run a generator to save the food in our freezer. While it was expensive to buy gas for the generator, we only had to run it a few hours a day as long as we didn't open the freezer. We had about half a beef in there as well as a lot of frozen fruits and vegetables, and we certainly did not want to lose that! We also had to pay to have a tree removed from our roof. We had a high deductible on our homeowner's insurance (maybe $1500-2000?), and we didn't file a claim because our damage was below that.

The financial burden of a power outage and storm damage can be enormous. You have the obvious expense of repairs if not covered by insurance or the deductible if covered. Then there is gas for a generator if you have one or the cost of food loss if you don't. When we were in NC, any food we lost in the freezer was not covered by insurance, but I believe that varies by state and policy terms. Then there is the higher cost of food, either take-out or prepared foods from the deli if you do not have access to a working kitchen. And laundry--have you been to a laundromat lately? The cost is insane! Some people have to go without pay if their employer is closed due to no power. Or if schools/daycares are closed, they can't leave their kids to go to work.

While I certainly wasn't happy about the expenses we incurred during an extended outage in NC, we were financially prepared to get through it. I cannot imagine how difficult it is for those people who are living paycheck to paycheck, and I'm sure some never recover from it.

ETA: The derecho I experienced is the same one others have referenced for June 2012. It was a monster storm!

Yes, just in May. We lost power for 10 days. The damage was astounding.

That’s when we had to buy a new generator. Old one would not start. Called Home Depots until I found one that was due a new shipment the next morning. Showed up an hour before opening. Got one.

Yes, and once if you’ve been in one, you learn to fear them. We lost a good portion of our roof, bunch of trees, completely cratered in our garage door. Thankfully we only lost power for a day

Yes, the 2012 one in Virginia. We were driving to the beach. All of a sudden, trees started flying across the interstate. We got off and parked and then garbage cans and construction barrels and fences were flying around our parked cars. It was terrifying.

Yes