A week after Derecho

Last Friday, June 29th, I returned from a week spent in Paris.  Great to be home, despite the amazing heat.  Being quite tired, I went to bed early and, it seems, slept through the incredible storm that messed up the subsequent days for a lot of people.  Joe and I were among the very fortunate; we lost no power and no damage to our beautiful maple tree.  The butterfly bush was cut in half.  That was all. 

Discordant circumstances in my Westover neighborhood (in Arlington, VA):  the Post Office was lit and it was cool, but they could only sell stamps; the system for calculating postage, processing passport orders, and so forth were impossible.  Ayers General Store had lights but no air conditioning, its register was a bit balky and no credit or debit cards could be used.The Safeway had no ice and very little bottled water; at the checkout, only cash and credit cards could be used, no debit cards, and NO cash back for anything.  On Lee Highway, of the four gas stations between George Mason Drive and Lexington Street, only one was open and its line stretched back to Lexington Street.

Having heard and read reports of the tempest, I expected to see lots and lots of damage in my heavily-treed neighborhood.  This is an old suburb (my neighborhood was platted in the 1930s.  Nearly every street has utility poles and a confusing web of lines).  I was surprised to see less damage than I expected.  Still, there were some whole trees that by some miracle fell only in yards, on fences, into the street, and very few on houses.   In the 1700 block of Longfellow, one tall poplar lay across the front yard and had brought down lots of wires and a utility pole; yellow "caution" tape stretched across the road because, I assume, the wires were hot.  Farther on, along Patrick Henry Drive, another section had yellow tape stretched across the road - - more downed wires along with trees and branches.

By Sunday morning, many many people had cleaned up the downed branches (except where they entangled with utility wires) -- how do you tell which wires are electric and which are cable and which are phone - - and are all dangerous?  I drove to the C &O Canal's Swains Lock (where I'm the Canal Steward), and saw that the Park Service has cleared the towpath there.  There were many large branches that had fallen along the campground's perimeter.  In the parking lot behind the lockhouse, what appears to be several small trees fell from the hillside across the gravel.   Our Canal Stewards plan to clean that up on Friday.

Back home, one very large tree on No. 11th Street is now doomed.  Joe and I used to walk past it frequently, and we'd marvel that its double trunk leaned far over the road, casting the road into deep shade.  And, I admit, we'd walk a bit more quickly past, fearing that its great size would bring it down.  No longer will we do so.  It's now about one-third the size it was last month.  And the remainder will be removed shortly.  

The Washington Post article yesterday described this as having an 18-foot circumference and an age of 250+.  It was a huge tree squeezed between the sidewalk and the street.

The larger part of the trunk broke away and fell across the road, damaging some fences on the opposite side.  A portion of it damaged the roof of a nearby house.  Below is an image of the tree pre-derecho:


Rest in peace, beautiful tree.