The Day After...

..The "Derecho" - which I now know means: "a widespread, long-lived straight-line wind storm that is associated with a fast-moving group of severe thunderstorms known as a mesoscale convective system. Derechos can cause hurricanic or tornadic-force winds, actual tornadoes, heavy rains, and flash floods."

Apparently that was what we experienced here in Ontario and Quebec yesterday. The storm covered a track 1000 km long from the Michigan border with Ontario through to Quebec city..and went right through our neighbourhood here in Whitby...leaving in its wake, at least 8 fatalities and a trail of destruction..uprooted trees, over-turned cars, trucks, and even a small airplane; it  destroyed buildings, homes, camper trailers, caused road closures, and severely damaged the power grid that has left hundreds of thousands of people with no electricity. We have been fortunate here in Whitby, as our power came back on this evening - after about 30 hours of doing without. Others are still waiting and it could be days...

For us, this is a rare event; for folks who live in certain parts of the USA, it is not; they deal with tornadoes or hurricanes all the time. I cannot imagine living with that threat and knowing that your town could be next and that you could lose everything in a few moments of nature's wrath! I am grateful that such an event is a rarity here....and hope we do not see another one for a very long time...

Tonight I could  actually back blip for yesterday and also for today as I have power and I have wifi again! Oh joy oh bliss! And as I have been sitting here writing this, I have been hearing the fireworks going off all around me......and thought it would make the perfect blip to represent "the day after"..and so I stepped out onto my front porch and snapped the photo for my main ..not a great shot, but a good image to point out that people are getting back into the celebratory spirit of the holiday weekend..although it was not the one expected.....