Amid unrelenting heat, frustrations rise for tens of thousands still without power

The family of Lieutenant Colonel Paul Mikeal, 42, have confirmed that he was killed in the crash yesterday. The Air Force has yet to release any names of the crew, or any of their conditions, but his family says that they were notified at 2-230 in the morning by the Air Force. His mother-in-law confirmed that she was with her daughter when she was notified, but they couldn't say more.


Colonel Paul Mikeal, gave his life, too fight on going fires,,

Amid unrelenting heat, frustrations rise for tens of thousands still without power,,

fight on going fires,,,,should be thankfull,,unrelenting heat, frustrations rise,, yes,,

People are doing there very best,,some with there lives.
just be thankfull

Originally posted by TiggersTheMan

Originally posted by Ben81
they even had a name for this rare phenomenon ..dont remember it
it came by surprise and it followed a straight line the weather experts said
it wasnt a normal tornado or hurricane

It's called a derecho

A strong derecho occurred June 29, 2012, starting in Illinois and progressing eastward. It cut through Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and the District of Columbia in about twelve hours (~11:00 a.m. in Chicago, ~11:30 p.m. in Washington, D.C.) leaving millions without power. A representative for Appalachian Power said it caused the worst power outage the company had ever seen. In Virginia it caused the worst power outages in commonwealth history for any weather event outside of past hurricanes and tropical storms. At least 22 people were killed by the storm, most by falling trees.

June 2012 North American derecho

edit on 2-7-2012 by TiggersTheMan because: added link

Thanks for that as I couldn't remember what it was called. I have lived here for all of my 35 years and this is the first time I remember hearing that 100% of Martinsville Virginia residents were without power. It's a little scary. McD's, the entire mall, grocery stores, etc. were all closed. It kind of opens your eyes a bit when you realize how a small storm like this can potentially paralize while cities/counties/states.

Originally posted by BobAthome
The family of Lieutenant Colonel Paul Mikeal, 42, have confirmed that he was killed in the crash yesterday. The Air Force has yet to release any names of the crew, or any of their conditions, but his family says that they were notified at 2-230 in the morning by the Air Force. His mother-in-law confirmed that she was with her daughter when she was notified, but they couldn't say more.


Colonel Paul Mikeal, gave his life, too fight on going fires,,

Amid unrelenting heat, frustrations rise for tens of thousands still without power,,

fight on going fires,,,,should be thankfull,,unrelenting heat, frustrations rise,, yes,,

People are doing there very best,,some with there lives.
just be thankfull

All of his effort trying to fight the fire are in vain
now that all other aircraft were grounded because of that accident
RIP for the pilot .. any lost of life is always tragic

Fire like this dont start because of the heat
yes the heat is a vital ingredient but the fire need to start somewhere

These are the biggest fire in US history
could a terrorist with a VTT started a few fires at different location ?
driving hundred of mile with gas for the VTT and to start the fires

Those fires are very suspicious .. nature didnt do that

I live in Ohio and I was caught in this storm right as it started.. I left work a half hour early to make a trek to the body shop to have my visor replaced ( I had an accident a couple weeks ago and they forgot to replace my busted visor ) .. so when I was in the last 10 minutes of my drive it went from sunny to dark and cloudy QUICK.. I texted a friend saying "It looks stormy ahead" .. that's when it started raining like crazy and the winds started picking up.. it got so intense that the traffic lights started spinning on the lines, a tree fell and one of the light poles came down..

I saw trashcans, tree branches, papers.. all sorts of stuff flying but I had no place really to stop so I kept going slowly.. power was out everywhere I looked but when I got to the body shop a few minutes later, they still had power.. I was only there like 5 minutes and then was out again and that's when it started hailing .. before the storm hit it was in the mid 80s and after it was all said and done it was in the mid to low 60s..

On my drive home I realized just how wide spread the power outages were, it's about a 30 minute drive home and every neighborhood and intersection I went through was without power and traffic was building up like crazy..

My house was without power from Friday evening until Sunday morning at around 4:30am .. it was rough because the nights were hot and humid and the days were sweltering at or just below 100 degrees ( with very humid air ) all the stores were closed as well except for a meijer store running on generators and a Kroger store in a small un-affected area.. the only thing that made things better for me is that I stocked up on LED powered disc lights ( motion sensing ) and 4-5 battery powered fans along with a ton of batteries.. the LED lights were a god send.. my house was pretty well lit up on each floor and each room for the duration of the outage because of those things..

I grew up in the DC area and now live in FL. When power goes out for thousands regularly here in FL due to summer storms you don't see it in the national media repeatedly and I've never heard much sympathy from those in DC. Anything that happens to the people in the DC area is immediately magnified by the media because that's where so many of them live. DC is such a bubble. Plenty of high paying jobs and government (directly or indirectly through contract) money over flowing in most people's pockets. People living there have little concept of how the rest of the country lives.

Quit your whining DCers.

reply to post by pajoly


Sounds like your level of education fits right in with Florida. First off, boo hoo.
Secondly, between baby killers and face eaters, Florida has had more then enough attention then it deserves.

Third, no one feels sorry for a state that elects a Governor that campaigned on the money he stole from you.


And last, back to point number one, a few thousand during a thunderstorm is considerably less the one million who lose power during a record breaking heat wave that is killing people left and right, therefor causing a crisis.

Just in case you didn't get that...

1.5 million is > 3,000

all I can say is....

Cash is still king!!

the storm itself was amazing, although rather short, were we are at in va, we didn't get any rain, or very little. the window of my car was partially down and I checked afterward, the car was dry. there was alot of lightening and wind gusts that measure up to 82 mph. there are still three lines down that can be seen from my front door.
we were lucky, our electricity stay on, although we lost our cable, net, and phone service. that didn't get restored till late yesterday afternoon. there's still a mess here and there but it's getting there.

oh, and why I say cash it king.
as of yesterday, our bank's computer system was down, couldn't cash a payroll check even., no atms were working, no online transactions, ect. many of the stores stayed open, but either they had no electricity or they couldn't process debit cards, and were only taking cash.
although some of the main grocery stores were up and running at least.

I keep telling family members to keep a stash of cash, usually I am worrying about that banker's holiday that is on the horizon, but well, they didn't listen obviously. of course they don't have that much money anyways.

as far as I know, we are still in a state of emergency, we this morning anyways.

reply to post by Ben81


My moms electric is still out but others I know have had it restored; then on Monday night a storm blew through Martinsville, VA knocking out power to some again.