Christmas Ztorm

We've just "recovered" from a little wind. Experts say it was the strongest gusts we've seen around here since the 60ies, and of course it left some damage in its wake. The weathermen (and girls) had accurate predicted this a few days out. We had a small precursor that blew down some stuff (neighbor's fence) and gave us a little feel of real autumn.

That was on Tuesday. Thursday afternoon I was in downtown Seattle for a meeting. Stepped outside Westlake Center to catch the bus home around 3.50 PM. It was raining, and yes it was wet, but it was truly manageable - still. My bus never came, but there were endless buses passing indicating "To Terminal", "East Base", and a lot of other unreadable messages. While it was raining harder, the wind also picked up. After not too long it was raining horizontally! After the 45+ minute wait (getting soaked up to you know what, despite both umbrella and long gore-tex jacket), the bus finally got there. I was lucky, the door opened up just in front of me, the bus was full, and there was really no room for anyone. Two stops later, the driver announced that he was not stopping anymore to pick up people. Sort of a nice announcement, but it did nothing to help the people waiting for the next bus out in the rain. and, heck, our bus was stopped most of the time anyway. Instead of the 20 minute ride to South Kirkland Park&Ride, it took over 2 hours this time. Gridlock bonanza!

I felt sad for the woman sitting next to/under me, since I had to stand the entire way and was dripping fresh "Chateau Nortwest" destilled water directly on her knee. She got soaked, but did not seem to mind. Maybe my (rain) water was better than the alternative, getting soaked from several other directions since the bus was so cramped we really had no choice. Once in Kirkland and picking up the truck, it took another two hours to get home north along the lake (normally 5-10 minutes).

I was up most of the night, following the ever increasing wind, and seeing us (and everyone else) losing power at exactly 12.50 AM Friday morning. It was sort of interesting to see "civilization as we know it" die at literally the flick of a switch. A few areas in downtown Seattle had power, but well over 1 million power customers were "cut off". Most of the Eastside was in the dark, apart from those that had generators. In a way actually a very pretty sight since all other activity stopped as well.

With a good load of firewood, high efficiency fireplace, food stuffed away and a (natural gas powered) hot water heater that never fails, we could have continued for a while. Wife started to get grouchy when it was getting too dark to knit or read in the evening hours, while I could just sit and watch the flames in the fireplace. It is so peaceful.

In any case, peace was not back in the household until I realized I had old Petzl headlamp among the climbing stuff in the basement. But, shortly after that, PSE also reconnected the power to us. We were lucky though. Many are still out.
As a footnote one should probably also stop to ask how a strong country like the US, can not manage to get its power grid at least up to some basic standards. This was "just" some wind. What happens next time if there are actually "targeted efforts" to really cut and disrupt power to the population, instead of "just some wind".

In any "natural event", there are also tradegies to be found in its wake. I feel for those who lost family members and friends, but at the same time I simply do not understand why people do certain things, not expecting some dire conesquencies:

- Putting generator inside the livingroom (one fatality)
- Putting generator inside garage with garagedoor closed (four+ fatalities)
- Putting a charcoal grill inside bedroom (one fatality)
- Walking dog over fallen powerlines (one fatality + dog)

On top of that, thousands of people did not have batteries, candles, food, or simply got upset just because their cable TV did not work, or god forbid, the remote control did not open the garage door. In situations like this it is best to; 1) be prepared; 2) help others in need; 3) chill out and wait for it to pass. There's really not much one can do to battle the "forces of nature". They always win anyway.

We got our power back Saturday night but could see the "poor souls" over at Finn Hill still in the dark and for many are still out. A few pictures of the carnege left in the wind's wake...