It was June 29, 2012. We at the West Bend News was nearing 3 pm and looking forward to the weekend. I had heard that a storm might be passing through the county, but the watch wasn’t really that bad. The derecho struck with such fierce winds that you thought you were in a tornado. 100’s of electric poles and live wires were down across highways, trees were ripped out of the dry ground with their bottom sides completely exposed.
July 1, 2014 at 1:25 am the storm strikes again, this time while we are sleeping. The roar of the wind hits my ears with a force and wakes me from my sleep. The constant flashes of lightning tell me we are in for something strong. The power shuts off and it brings back the memories of two years ago.
In 2012 The power throughout the area was off for days. Those who received their power back by Sunday were lucky, for some had to wait 8 days or more.
This year was different though. New steel power poles, much strong than the wood poles they replaced, were installed following that storm. The ground in 2012 was very dry. At that time you could dig down 10 feet and you still would not pull ground water into the hole. This year there has been significant rainfall and the ground has a grip on the trees, whereas in 2012 the clay was all but pulled away from the roots.
Waking up this morning and seeing the power is on, I look around and see small and large branches down, I’m thankful today that there wasn’t near the damage done as there was two years ago.
What did you see?
