Steve Burns
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON – (WMAL) We all likely know what the word “derecho” means, thanks to the events of five years ago today.
June 29, 2012 started out hot. Historically hot.
“I remember a very hot, and a very humid day,” the National Weather Service’s Steve Zubrick told WMAL. “I think we set the all-time June record.” Reagan National Airport recorded a high of 104, and it felt hotter thanks to oppressive humidity levels.
NWS was keeping an eye on a small storm cell that had developed over Illinois in the late morning. At that time, they still didn’t know where the cell was headed, or if it would break up before reaching the Mid-Atlantic.
“As the day wore on, from the morning hours into the early afternoon, the models kind of went off the tracks a little bit,” Zubrick said.
They started shifting from heat warnings to thunderstorm warnings, but as prevalent as those are in the D.C. region, it became imperative to make it known: This was going to be something much more serious than a usual summer storm.
“I remember using enhanced wordings in our severe weather statements, talking about ‘This is a life-threatening situation. You need to be in a safe place,'” Zubrick said.
Pretty soon, he noticed observations from West Virginia were “wigging out.” In fact, those centers had lost power as the storm exploded through the region.
By the time it hit the D.C. region around 10:30, he said the NWS building shook, and the sky was “lit up” with lightning.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said.
Power was, of course, cut off to a large portion of the metro area, with downed trees and wires becoming a normal sight. In Fairfax County, Zubrick recalled talking with the county’s emergency operations manager a few days after the storm.
“He said, ‘Well, you know, the storm went through and we didn’t think it was that bad because our 911 call volume had gone down.’ Turns out, they had lost power to their 911 call center.”
Zubrick recalled seeing malls throughout the region packed with people, not there to shop, but to get back into the air conditioning and power up their electronics, as hours without power turned into days. The lackluster response perceived by many from the region’s utilities soon became the main story.
“We were not prepared for it, and I would say no utility was really prepared for it,” Pepco Government Affairs Vice President Jerry Pasternak told WMAL. “You have to remember, the derecho was a hurricane without a warning.”
Pepco’s infrastructure not only took a hit, but complaints around its customer service were racking up as people looked in vain for accurate and honest restoration estimates.
“We’ve done a lot since then,” Pasternak said. “We continue to refine the way we establish and communicate our estimated times of restoration.”
On the infrastructure side, he said there have been many new initiatives to streamline the troubleshooting process and strengthen power lines.
“Last year, we had the best year in our company’s history for reliability of our system,” Pasternak said. “We are in a much better place today than we were five years ago.”
One of Montgomery County’s most vocal utility critics agreed.
“I think it was a wake-up call for a lot of people. What do we need to do to make sure our grid is more reliable?” County Council President Roger Berliner, a former energy law attorney, told WMAL. “We finally got the incentives placed right to ensure that Pepco has every incentive to ensure their system is reliable.”
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