I haven't posted for awhile, but I do keep an eye on this forum!

I was in the Virginia mountains when that storm hit - driving with my granddaughter and 3 girls coming to stay for a sleepover. I thought it was a local squall, but an awful one. After dodging 2 downed trees and almost being hit by a large branch blown across the road, we were stopped by a tree stretched from fence to fence across the road, no way to drive around.

We turned around and stayed with my cousins until the storm calmed a bit, although, of course, no power. Luckily, road crews were already at work, and the road was quickly cleared. We went to our mountain cabin (dacha!!), with the girls clamoring for chips and dip, and candles. Still no power the next morning, but at least the telephone lines were working. We found out that over one million people were out of power, and would be for at least 4-10 days, and the "local storm" stretched from Kentucky to Pennsylvania!

I just found this website about Maryland, where Rockzmom lives, and there are some parts of Maryland which still don't have power:
Current Outages

The storm appears to be the result of dramatic temperature changes. The day before the storm, the night was chilly: 42 degrees F (5.6 C), and that day we hit 95 degrees F (35 C). We should have expected a storm, but, good grief, what a storm!!

I had to return to Florida on Sunday. The main roads were cleared - a heroic job, if you ask me - since, for 60 miles, it looked like tornado damage - I've never seen so many trees twisted and fallen. It is amazing that so few people were injured and, overall, how few homes were damaged!

Here's hoping Rockzmom is ok, and checks in soon!