A "Microburst" Hits Cheverly

Well, . . . where do I start?  We here in Cheverly have had quite an interesting 48 hours.  As we all know, we had record breaking heat here in the greater Washington, DC Metropolitan area last week.  Wednesday and Thursday were unbearable to put it mildly.  Friday we were a few degrees cooler and the forecasters were predicting milder weather for the weekend and next week and the chance of thunderstorms Friday evening.  I don't know if you could call what we had in Cheverly a "thunderstorm."  I think the news people have referred to it as a "Microburst."  Whatever it was, it wreaked havoc on our little town.  I watched most of it from the front door and I can tell you that it was particularly brief but extremely powerful.  I don't ever recall winds like we had and it has been many years since I've seen hail the size of quarters.

We were without power on Crest Avenue from about 7:30 on Friday evening until 1:00 AM Saturday, a brief period of five and one half hours.  Others in Cheverly are still without power as I write.  Although the power came back on early Saturday morning, I have been without cable, internet and telephone until just a few hours ago.

What follows is a pictorial of what I witnessed yesterday morning.  I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

At the height of the storm.

Someone lost their trashcan.

Another tree down.  It seems to have been twisted off the trunk.

Tree down on Euclid Street tangled in the power lines.

Route 202 at the merge to 295 South

The cranes in the background are replacing a utility pole that fell across Route 202.

An uprooted tree in Cheverly.

A tree down on the power lines on Carlyle Street just feet from Crest Avenue.

We were very lucky at Crest Avenue.  We sustained no damage to the house.  However the back yard did not fair so well.  Some of these limbs and branches came from the age-old Sweet Gum Tree in my yard.  Others came from neighboring trees.  We will work diligently this week to clean up and get back to our important work here at Crest Avenue.

A tangle of limbs and branches.

Some branches from the neighbors.

This gives you some idea of the size of what came down.

A tangled mess atop the garden shed.

It is going to take some time for us all to get cleaned up from this storm.  The town has been very conscientious.  There were trucks out patrolling the streets and picking up debris in the early morning hours on Saturday before sunrise.  Let us hope this is the last of these storms we will see.