June 29: On This Day in World History … briefly
A derecho ('straight' in Spanish) is a widespread, long-lived, straight-line windstorm associated with a fast-moving group of severe thunderstorms known as a mesoscale convective system.
2012: Deadly US ‘derecho’ – kills many and leaves millions without power
The June 2012 Mid-Atlantic and Midwest derecho was one of the most destructive and deadly fast-moving severe thunderstorm complexes in North American history. The progressive derecho tracked across a large section of the Midwestern United States and across the central Appalachians into the mid-Atlantic states on the afternoon and evening of June 29, 2012, and into the early morning of June 30, 2012.
It resulted in a total of 22 deaths, millions of power outages across the entire affected region, and a damage total of US$2.9 billion which exceeded that of all but the top 25 Atlantic tropical cyclones. The storm prompted the issuance of four separate severe thunderstorm watches by the Storm Prediction Centre. A second storm in the late afternoon caused another watch to be issued across Iowa and Illinois.
Damage was widespread and extensive along the entire path of the derecho, especially in northern Indiana and the Fort Wayne metro area, central and western Ohio, northeastern Kentucky, southwestern Pennsylvania, West Virginia, northern, central, and southwestern Virginia, Maryland, Washington, DC, Delaware and southern New Jersey. In all the mentioned areas, many trees uprooted or snapped, roofs became damaged, tents deployed to sell fireworks leading up to the 4th of July Holiday collapsed, and power outages were extensive, with over 4.2 million customers losing power as a result. An Appalachian Power representative described the power outage as the worst the company had ever seen.[15] In total, 22 people were killed across seven states and the District of Columbia.
At least ten of those deaths were in Virginia, all of them due to fallen trees. Two of the deaths were in New Jersey, after two children were killed by falling trees at a campground at Parvin State Park, three deaths were reported in Maryland and one death was reported in Ohio after the storm. As it occurred in the midst of the record Summer 2012 North American heat wave, conditions on following days were problematic, particularly for seniors and vulnerable people.
Scattered structural damage also occurred along the path of the derecho, from both falling trees and the winds themselves. Some of the damage included siding was torn off houses, roofs removed from houses, businesses and apartment buildings, mobile homes heavily damaged, barns and garages destroyed and airplanes flipped.
Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.
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