It’s been an interesting few days in Charlottesville, Albemarle and the surrounding area. We experienced (and learned what it was/was called) a derecho.

Derechos come from a band of thunderstorms that are bow- or spearhead-shaped on radar and, thus, are also called a bow echo or spearhead radar echo. The size of the bow may vary, and the storms associated with the bow may die and redevelop. Winds in a derecho can be enhanced by downburst clusters embedded inside the storm. These straight-line winds can exceed 100 mi/h (160 km/h) (in some cases, sustained wind) in these clusters and straight-line wind gusts of up to 200 mi/h (320 km/h) are possible in the most extreme cases.^{[citation needed]} Tornadoes sometimes form within derecho events, although such events are often difficult to confirm due to the additional damage caused by straight-line winds in the immediate area.

– Two people died on Friday night; being without power for a few days pales in comparison to such tragedy.

– People have been friendly, helpful and kind. The offers I have received offering assistance or help from friends near and not so near has been a bit life/humanity reaffirming.

– We learned that Twitter is a far, far better than any other medium for conveying information in a timely fashion.

– This is my curated list of Charlottesville media on Twitter. Edits: additions/subtractions are welcomed.

– People want and need information, and they want and need community as well. The time I’ve invested and spent building the community around RealCrozetVA has proven to be a bit useful. It seems a few people actually follow news there, and it’s somewhat gratifying to know that the site/community has been somewhat beneficial to the Crozet community. I couldn’t have built and implemented this overnight; it’s taken years to build something useful.

My family/neighborhood/area has been without power since late Friday night and estimates for return of power are (really unknown) ranging from today through Friday. We’re looking at this as:

1) an adventure
2) an exercise to demonstrate to the girls (and us all) how much we value electricity & internet
3) an opportunity to clean out our fridge for the first time in 8 years.

But … from a comment on Facebook:

… but this storm has made me realize how much I LOVE Crozet. During my very long drive to DE, I went through many areas hit by the storm (not nearly as hard hit as us, in my opinion) and the words rude, impatient and annoying come to mind regarding the people we encountered- nothing like Crozet! …

Charlottesville or Albemarle or Crozet – times like these, as frustrating as they may be, make me realize how lucky we are to live here.