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The storms here have been at least once or twice a week for the last month. A town 2 1/2 hours west of me was obliterated yesterday with multiple deaths. The tornado just ran right through them. My anxiety is through the roof anytime it gets cloudy anymore. This has been going on for a few years now where they seem much worse in intensity, and I have lived here my whole life. 2020 derecho was bad and massively unpredicted. They saw wind on the radar and then we got hurricane strength wind instead like a wall out of nowhere. Now it’s like constant where we don’t get normal rain, we always have to have heavy wind with it, It seems. Anyhow, anybody else feeling this way? I know I’m not the only one in this general vicinity.

I was very near a tornado when I was 15. Saw it coming, ran out, got my dog and we hit the basement. The rest of my family and my boyfriend, stupidly, stood around watching it. I mean, it was a few blocks away and we weren't hit directly, but why take that chance, you know?

I dream about tornadoes a lot. I worry about them a lot when storms come up and the wind kicks up. I'm always watching the sky for that colour - you never forget that sick green/yellow/grey colour. I'll never forget the humidity that day either. I was getting ready for a date and I could not get my hair to dry.

So, ya, I get anxious. And it pains me to see my old dog get anxious (not the same one from the day of the tornado. Some old dogs apparently will develop storm anxiety in their old age when they previously didn't have it when young.) I feel like I have to try to calm myself down so as not to feed her anxiety.

A friend of mine in Iowa went through the derecho that I assume you may be talking about. She had a lot of home damage and to add insult to injury, she went through a boatload of crap with her insurance company.

The power of Mother Nature is so scary.

We don’t get tornadoes but we do get earthquakes and wildfires. And yes, they seem to be getting worse.

As David Remnick said

Nature is cold, wet, hard and unforgiving.

And the insurance companies are pulling out in droves, leaving thousands with bad options. Those on fixed incomes are getting insurance quotes that are an additional $500 per month if they can get any at all. Florida and Texas are having similar issues I think.

Not sure what the answer is, but we are all very vulnerable.

(And it was hard to look at the aftermath of those tornadoes. Just devastating.)

And the insurance companies are pulling out in droves, leaving thousands with bad options.

When we lived in CA, despite having State Farm for all my insurance since I started driving at 16, with no claims, they wouldn't insure us. I was so pissed.

While not the Midwest, I have friends in the Houston area who were hit by the derecho a week ago, who just got power back yesterday. Not everyone has power yet. Luckily most friends I have got it back within 48 hours.

I am a sort of Weather Channel addict... when weather events are bad, I have the channel on in the background (like right now). But I did have to laugh when they added a new 'category' to their repertoire... PDS, which stands for potential destructive storm. I mean, when you're under a severe thunderstorm watch/warning, tornado watch/warning, isn't it the same thing? If I was under a severe thunderstorm warning, I would just expect that a derecho would be a possibility.

And the insurance companies are pulling out in droves, leaving thousands with bad options. Those on fixed incomes are getting insurance quotes that are an additional $500 per month if they can get any at all. Florida and Texas are having similar issues I think.

I'm an insurance agent in Texas. The situation here is pretty bad. We're seeing home insurance premiums double - and even triple on high value homes - and it's because of climate change and inflation. The actuaries have been warning us for decades that climate change is a big problem. We had a big freeze a couple of years ago where temps dropped below zero almost statewide (unheard of for most of Texas, excluding the panhandle) and there were rolling power blackouts. 200 people died. Reserves of cash that insurance companies must have on hand were threatened because the damage was so widespread, so they had to jack up premiums to refill the reserves and to prepare for future catastrophic events.

Many companies have closed to new business. A few are pulling out. Two years ago, we had about 15 companies that we could compare for home customers. We now have THREE. All require a minimum of a 2% wind and hail deductible. One limits roof coverage. One requires that the home be under five years old. All have strict underwriting guidelines and won't accept anyone with bad credit. Progressive won't write a new policy unless the house was built this year. Not 2023. THIS year.

I saw an article that said sea levels have risen 6-8" along the southeast coast. Storms have increased in frequency and severity. We're in for a rough road ahead. It's not going to get any better. I fear that we've crossed the threshold for being able to do something about it.

[This message edited by SacredSoul33 at 4:03 PM, Thursday, May 23rd]

So it’s everything getting worse. I just read today that Hurricanes are expected to be worse this year as well. Mother Nature can calm down if she would like.

Ugh I can’t even imagine what the hurricanes will be like this year. The thought of that scares me.

I’m so so sorry for what you all are experiencing in the Midwest. I’m in Houston, we had a derecho recently and that was SO SCARY. I can’t even imagine what the Midwest is experiencing.

Climate change has always been so concerning for me. I think of the younger generations and how they’ll all fare.

@sacredsoul,

I worked in insurance back in 2012 and remember them selling flood insurance separately, and being quite strict on whether they’d cover your home or not depending on the area you live in. Houston floods often, and it’s happening with more frequency. We’ve had really bad flooding, the freeze, and this derecho 😵‍💫 honestly, I don’t know how people don’t take climate change seriously. It’s mind boggling.

I’m curious, have flood policies grown more strict or different over the years too?

I worked in insurance back in 2012 and remember them selling flood insurance separately, and being quite strict on whether they’d cover your home or not depending on the area you live in. Houston floods often, and it’s happening with more frequency. We’ve had really bad flooding, the freeze, and this derecho 😵‍💫 honestly, I don’t know how people don’t take climate change seriously. It’s mind boggling.

I’m curious, have flood policies grown more strict or different over the years too?

I'm in DFW, so I don't sell a lot of flood insurance. I've done a few policies over the years, but so infrequently that I can't speak with any authority on it. I know they redrew the flood maps within the last decade or so and some people got rezoned.

I've never heard of a "derecho" until this thread! Pretty sure we just had one this morning! We got 60-80mph winds and a ton of rain. There was so much water that our French drains couldn't handle it and some came in under the back door. Also, green tree branches down all over the place. We keep getting flash flood notifications. Ordinarily, we'd be well past the rainy season and starting the hot and dry summer, but there's a chance of rain and storms every day in the 10-day forecast. Things are getting weirder.

I've never heard of a "derecho" until this thread!

Iowa had a really destructive one a couple of years ago. That was the first time I'd heard about it.

Derecho has been around for many years. It has only been used recently in meteorology in the recent past. Similar to polar vortex. It's been happening forever, but we just called it a bad storm or straight line winds. Had one if those in 93 that did lots of damage. We had significant storms over the weekend and several EF1 tornados close to home.

There were really bad tornadoes close to us, too, but I was completely oblivious while they were happening. I don't think we even got rain at my house. A friend's house had the roof ripped off, and an RV park was hit badly. I bet that was super scary. I can't imagine riding out a storm like that in a camper. My daughter's house was about 10 miles south of a storm that killed 7. Thank goodness she has a storm shelter. They even had the turtle in there with them, but had to leave the chickens to fend for themselves.

I've never heard of a "derecho" until this thread! Pretty sure we just had one this morning! We got 60-80mph winds and a ton of rain. There was so much water that our French drains couldn't handle it and some came in under the back door. Also, green tree branches down all over the place. We keep getting flash flood notifications. Ordinarily, we'd be well past the rainy season and starting the hot and dry summer, but there's a chance of rain and storms every day in the 10-day forecast. Things are getting weirder.

I hadnt heard of them either until we got one on May 17th. I'm so sorry that you experienced that. I agree, things are definitely getting weirder. We had whatever remnants of what you all had down here yesterday. That was highly unpleasant! I was on the freeway when it started - we had hail, winds (not like the last time though), power outages, rain & some flooding. Not great to have been on the freeway for that - very much scared me, especially after the last storm.

I'm so so sorry for the weather events everyone have been experiencing lately. It's some very scary stuff. Tornadoes have always been one of my top fears. The fact we've had so many across the states this year and so many fatalities as a result is so so sad.

I was on the freeway when it started

I bet that was scary!

Houston is already tough in the summer due to the humidity. I can't imagine how bad it might get as the temps climb. Last summer here was SO HOT, and here we go again with another one. I'm really not looking forward to it.