I Drove Through the Derecho and It Was the Most Terrifying Experience of my Life

Third year orientation started last Thursday, and it was exactly the slap in the face anticipated.

It was long, drawn out, and fairly useless.  The barrage of forms, mask fittings, CPR training, and IDs started early on Thursday morning and ended just before 7 p.m. on Friday.  After spending the earlier days in the week moving to a new apartment, I wanted nothing more than to hit the gym, go to The Lawyer’s fully unpacked and clean condo, and collapse in the sweet embrace of his air conditioning unit on Friday night.

Sadly, there was still work to be done at my old apartment.

I had the choice of waiting until Saturday night to do it, or just pushing through on Friday.  Deciding that the reward would be sweeter if I could just get it done, I sat on the floor of my once bedroom on Friday night, and mentally made a plan while scarfing down a chicken sandwich from Burger King.

I still had to unpack the fridge and freezer, grab the two huge bags of Goodwill clothes from the closet, and do a general clean/vacuum before leaving.  My roommate had asked me to leave the vacuum cleaner for her to use, so the plan was to move my last things out, but to come back on Saturday night to turn in keys and take my vacuum cleaner.

An hour or so into cleaning up, I was hitting a wall.  I was just so tired.  I texted The Lawyer and asked him to come over to help me. 

He had been planning to work out and meet me at my new apartment in Alexandria, but he skipped the gym and came over in his work clothes.  By 10 p.m., both of our vehicles were packed and ready to go.  Since my roommate’s parents arrived around the same time to help her, though, we dawdled for another 30 minutes talking to them.

At 10:30, I sent The Lawyer to buy himself some dinner, and I got on the road to Alexandria.  I took what should have been a shortcut on I-66, only to find out too late that it was totally closed, and hastily texted The Lawyer not to take the I-66 pickup onto I-495 to Alexandria.

Until I exited I-66, everything looked normal.  It was still oppressively hot and muggy.  It might have been cloudy, but it was dark, so I couldn't tell.  There was no warning that a storm was coming, and I was just praying for the traffic to just MOVE already, so that I could get home and finally sleep.  The Lawyer and I had discussed the possibility of going back to his place after unpacking, but exhaustion was dictating that we both might be sleeping at my new apartment.

Well.

By the time I got onto 495, I noticed some very bright lightning.  Coming from South Florida, it wasn’t so much scary, as surprising, for DC.  I remember thinking,

“Wow, is it going to rain?  I didn’t hear that today…”

Before I could fully process the weather forecast for the day, though, I found myself in what suddenly appeared to be a tornado.  Very strong winds appeared out of nowhere and tree debris started slamming into my car and windshield.  The only frame of reference that I had was from the movie Twister, and that's exactly what it looked like.  Rain started as suddenly and unexpectedly as the lightning, and because I-495 is under construction, the high winds whipped up the sand into a blinding dust storm.  As the visibility was suddenly reduced to nearly nothing, flying debris would appear out of the darkness as it hit or barely missed the car.

I had no idea what was happening with the weather and kept frantically toggling the preset radio stations, hoping for some information.  There was nothing.

Instead, the winds proceeded to pick up the diamond-shaped metal signs and orange barricades that had been blocking the construction—and hurl them across the highway.  I was suddenly in an unbelievable obstacle course of flying metal, as cars alternatively stopped or swerved to avoid the flying debris.  My instinct was to drive faster and to move to get out of the storm, but this was nearly impossible with the surprise locations of highway signs.  

I’ve never felt like I was in a situation where I had to pray for my life, but I did—out loud—on Friday night.

 

In the midst of this, I had no idea where The Lawyer was.  It’s rare for us to be traveling in two separate cars, much less to be separated on the highway when we are.  As I passed an exit that I was familiar with, I knew that I was in trouble and that I should get off the highway, but I didn’t, simply because I didn’t want The Lawyer and I getting separated.

At the same moment, The Lawyer tells me that he hadn’t yet left Falls Church (where my previous apartment was).  He said that he also realized that the winds were hurricane force and that he needed to get off the road.  He also nearly went back to my old apartment for shelter.  The only reason he got on the highway was  because he knew that I was already there, and that we needed to stay together.

I (obviously) couldn't call or text him while this was happening, so when he called me, I quickly tapped the speaker and yelled to him that I thought I might be driving through a tornado.  He said that it looked the same where he was too, and that he thought an accident had just happened or that I-495 was shutting down.  He would later tell me that he was seeing explosions happen during this time—what we would later realize were transformers crashing to the ground.  A few of those electrical transformers or their poles fell on cars, just like ours, and killed people.

One of the power lines, near my new apartment, that was still down as of yesterday.  Sadly, someone did die in this particular area.

The Lawyer made me stay on speaker phone until I got to the new apartment, and leaving the car packed to the brim with perishable goods, I dashed through lightning and beating rain from the parking lot into the safety of the new apartment.  I texted some friends from church to ask them to pray for The Lawyer who was maybe still on I-495 or who knows where, because he hung up after I got to the new apartment.

The first friend to text back was the one who told me that what was happening was a Derecho and she said to stay put for the night, because she had already lost power and the storm wasn’t expected to stop until 1 a.m.  The Lawyer and I had thankfully set up my bed, bathroom, and TV the previous night, so I turned on the news and found out that 500,000 people were without power, 2 people were dead, and the numbers were climbing—right as The Lawyer walked in the door.

The next morning, another friend from church texted to say that everyone’s power was out.  Of my friends who were in contact on Friday night, it turns out that I was the only one who still had power.  

So, the party commenced, as my (thankfully empty) freezer was filled up, perishable food was cooked, and electronics were charged--in the comfort of the air conditioning inside.

When The Lawyer and I drove back to Falls Church on Saturday night, to return my keys, we found out that my old building had lost power shortly after we left and that the entire city was without power.  Stop lights were out, there was no concierge or leasing staff, and one of my old neighbors said that if we had turned back and sought shelter at my old apartment on Friday night, we would have been stranded because of the number of downed trees on the roads.  Also, since I had totally cleaned the apartment out, we wouldn’t have had food, water, A/C, or even toilet paper.  It was VERY fortuitous that neither The Lawyer nor I decided to turn back.

After realizing how widespread the damage was, The Lawyer and I realized how incredibly blessed and fortunate we were on Friday night.  There were so many last minute decisions that could have nearly landed us in a much worse situation.

Namely, had I given in to my tiredness and just gone to workout on Friday, I would have had to move my remaining items on Saturday night.  Since the building lost power, though, there would have been no elevator for that.  As it was, my old roommate ended up carrying her things down 11 FLIGHTS of stairs on Saturday.  She said it took her five and a half hours.  (Let me tell you, I would have been shooting off emails to the building management and using The Lawyer’s powers for good to get my lease extended.)

Also, I’m the poster child for Miss Independent and hate asking for help.  If I hadn’t have asked The Lawyer to come to Falls Church as early as I did on Friday night, I would have realized—right as the storm was starting—that my last apartment belongings couldn’t fit into my car.  By the time The Lawyer got to me, we both would have gotten stranded in the old, empty apartment.  Again, without water, food, or even a blanket to sleep on.  (My roommate's things were all packed, just not moved.  She was staying at a hotel with her parents for the weekend.)

Finally, both The Lawyer and I usually workout on Friday nights.  If we had gone to our respective gyms, it’s likely that one or both of us might have gotten caught there when the storm happened.  Being stuck in your own home without power is one thing, but what do you do if you’re NOT at home and the roads are blocked/streetlights are out when you have to leave?  My gym is also in an area that easily floods and is under construction, and I shuddered when I thought about how I would have gotten out of there without power.

Anyway, we are all fine, thankful, and very humbled--if not a little shaken up from that horrific drive--and everyone that I know now has power again.  Thank God.