A Million Still Without Power In Seven States

After midnight on Saturday morning, I was putting together an edition of the GWC Video Report, and had noticed on the regional radar that there was a powerful storm rolling through the Eastern United States. What happened was a Derecho emerged from a cluster of thunderstorms in Northeastern Iowa on Friday morning.

The derecho picked up momentum as it rolled through the Chicago Metro area, and pushed eastward into Indiana. The storm grew in size. Winds gusted to 91 miles per hour in places such as Fort Wayne while further east in Ohio, several places reported wind gusts of over 80 miles per hour. Traveling on the periphery of high pressure off the east coast of the United States that was responsible for a second heat wave of the young summer, the derecho barreled through West Virginia, and ultimately ended up bringing 71 mile per hour wind gusts to the nation’s capital of Washington, D.C.

In total about 5 million people were left without power originally from the derecho, which traveled over 650 miles and produced over 800 storm reports. Five days after the storm, approximately 20 percent of those affected still do not have power. Rural sections of West Virginia are not expected to have power restored until this weekend. This is forcing many to deal with the searing heat and humidity without air conditioning and water.

New Jersey wasn’t immune from the storm. Places in Atlantic County, on the northern end of what became a 350 mile wide storm, was placed under a State of Emergency. Trees and power lines were downed across the county. Nearby in Cumberland County, the city of Millville has already spent nearly $300,000 since Friday’s storm. There are still 17 streets in the city with hanging power lines. Eleven roads still remain closed throughout Cumberland County. Over 200,000 people were left without power.

Nationwide, there have been 20 deaths from the combination of the relentless heat and humidity, and this tremendous storm. Two of those deaths occurred in Pittsgrove down in Salem County, New Jersey when a tree fell on a camp site killing two children. Winds gusted over 70 miles per hour in South Jersey, which caused damage that an Atlantic City electrical worker to declare that the damage there was much worse than what was caused by Hurricane Irene in August 2011.

Already, the storm system has been ranked by the Weather Channel as one of the top five derechos of all time with the likes of Superstorm 1993, and the multiple derechos that developed during the deadly heatwave in the Midwest and Eastern U.S. in mid-July 1995. Derecho is a term for a is a widespread, long-lived wind storm that is associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms. Derechos can thrive in the type of weather environment that much of the United States has been dealing with recently.