Winners and Losers in Friday night's massive storm

This tree on 3rd and Fillmore took out two cars
 in Friday night's storm

Last Friday night a massively strong storm, officially classified as a "derecho", took everyone by surprised and caused dangerous conditions around 10:30pm. Almost everyone in the region lost power for several days, and as may as 400,000 Dominion customers are still waiting for their lights to come on.

The storm killed most usual Friday night activities for Clarendon, as most bars were plunged into darkness and cash registers would not work. After this strange weekend before the holiday passed, there are some clear "winners" and "losers" of this storm:

Winner = Silver Diner

Despite all of the rest of the block going dark, by some lucky miracle Silver Diner remained powered up the whole weekend. This gave them great business as their was a huge line out the door for them Saturday morning.

Loser = Lyon Park

By my estimate, Clarendon's residential neighbor to the south got hit the hardest in the immediate area. Some houses still do not have power, probably due to several huge (read: scary) trees that fell and damaged houses and parked cars. Luckily, the nearby 7-11 on Highland Street seems well stocked in bags of ice. Good luck on keeping cool!

Boccato Gelato & Espresso

A great place for a quick and casual desert is Boccato Gelatos on Wilson Blvd across from Iota and Whole Foods. The small shop offers an impressive variety of refreshing gelatos. The young staff is always friendly and willing to hand out tiny samples of the ice cream.

Unfortunately for me, the power failues on Edgewood Street due to the storm caused them to close shop for tonight.

I also love the outdoor beanches of different heights. The place has gotten outstanding reviews and has a very appealing atmosphere.

The storm to end all storms in Clarendon

Massive amounts of rain, wind, hail and lightning ravaged Clarendon starting at 6am this morning. I doubt anyone was able to sleep through this storm, as lightning struck close by and caused traffic signals to turn off and car alarms to turn on.

A telephone and electric pole next to the GMU campus was hit by a direct burst of fire from the sky, shutting down a portion of Kirkwood Road.