Well, this summer has gone a bit sideways here on Eruptions. For those of you following the news, central Ohio (where I am based) was hit by a "derecho" - a strong string of thunderstorms. The storms, when they reached Granville, were moving ~60 knots easterly and packing winds that were as high as 128 km/h (80 mph). Luckily, our house was spared any damage and our only casualty was an picnic umbrella that flew maybe 70 meters to its demise. However, many old trees came down around Granville and across central Ohio, leading to power outages for upwards of 650,000 across the state - and many places will not see power restored until next weekend (including Granville). Combine that power outage with 90+ F/ 32+ C heat for the next week (not to mention the potential for more storms), we decided to make a tactical retreat with the baby to my parents' house in central Massachusetts. So, here we are - much cooler and with power - but watching central Ohio recover from afar.
Now, being from New England, I've never had many situations where evacuations were necessary. The big storms we would get were blizzards, where you hunker down at home until the weather clears. However, this storm damage in Ohio was clearly a situation where evacuation is a reasonable option. It is odd for me - I write a lot about people being evacuated all the time due to volcanic activity (like what occurred this weekend in Colombia near Nevado del Ruiz). However, not having experienced myself, the concept was always an abstraction. Now, this is nowhere near as dire as evacuating from a potentially devastating eruption, but I felt all those emotions and thought all those thoughts that I've read about - where should we go? What will we do with the pets? What will we do with the house? How can we make sure the house is safe? How can we be sure to bring all the necessities? What it we forget something vital? What if something terrible happens at the house while we're gone? How long we will need to be away? There is so much uncertainty that you feel like the evacuation might be more work/stress than just trying to stick it out, but then the reality kicks in - can we really stay in the cool basement for a week with no power, 2 cats and a baby, only eating the dry/preserved goods in the house on the gas burners? The retreat to New England seemed like the best option, even if it meant 12 hours of driving.
Anyway, right now I'm so very out of touch with the volcano news. Now that we're settled in Massachusetts, I'm going to play some catch up and likely post later in the week, but it might be sporadic. However, I'm glad we're all safe and sound - and hopefully we'll get power back soon in Ohio so we can head back to the cats, clean up the mess of our fridge and freezer and get back to normal. This, in itself, makes it so different than many people heading back from an evacuation where your home and livelihood might have been destroyed by volcanic fury rather than just inconvenienced by the lack of power.
