Northwest Wind Storm

[Kubotasrking]

The Pacific NW was hit with a pretty big storm this past Thursday. We had sustained winds 60 miles inland of >65MPH. Power was out for 2 days for us, and is still out for many families. We lost 40-45 trees (mature douglas fir), and 2 fences. A power line was downed across our driveway so my wife was unable to get home from work (I was stuck in chicago's O'Hare due to...you guessed it...weather delays).

The last month has been a doozy for us in the Oregon/ SW Washington areas ..we had a family from CA get lost on a logging road while using their car's GPS to find a resort (the father died attempting to walk out in order to save his family). We've 3 lost hikers on Mt. Hood, on has been found dead, the remaining two are still missing, and now this storm which has killed a few residents.

Is the weather just as wacky in other places?

 

[lopezian]

I'll second that! I live on Lopez Island, about 90 miles north of Seattle and 9 miles from the mainland. We really got socked with this latest windstorm. Gusts of up to 75 mph throughout the night uprooted trees, broke mooring lines, and generally caused havoc. We are fortunate to have lost power for less than a day.

This storm comes on top of extensive damage from almost a foot of wet snow about three weeks ago. The only good part is nobody will lack for firewood next season. I've collected a couple of cords just from trees down on the county roads, and I haven't even started cleaning up our own woods which have tons of downed trees.

This year is one for the record books.

 

[Highbeam]

We (me, wife, 4yo, 1yo) just got our power back this morning here in my part of the south puget sound. So that was 80 hours of no power with temps in the mid 20s to the 30s. I had a generator and enough fuel to last until enough fuel stations got power so that I could go and get more fuel. My backup plan was to siphon fuel from vehicles which gave me another week's supply. It isn't lighting, warm refers, water, or entertainment, but it is not being able to heat the home that sent the neighbors to abandon their homes. Whenever my gas hog genny was running there were two 1500 watt space heaters, the refer, big halogen lamp, and the entertainment center running.

No phones, no cell phones, no communication with the outside world until more than 48 hours after the storm. Cable television does not work in a power outage so no television news (battery radio only, truck gets cold) Us young folks don't run antennaes for television.

Transportation was miserable since traffic lights being out meant everyone stopping for the IX. Not a big deal until you realize it will take hours to get through the town that only took minutes with power.

People are now dying from carbon monoxide poisoning (don't run your genny in the garage) and fires associated with seldom used chimneys and also the power unexpectedly coming back on.

Air quality is currently rated as unhealthy with all the burning of wood heaters and storm debris. Noticably smokey outside and a flashlight leaves a clear beam through the air.

Lesson's learned:
-Need more heavier gauge extension cords to run big appliances without too much voltage drop (down to 92 on the refer),
-CO detectors suck batteries fast like one 9 volt battery per day.
-The power company has no idea when the lights will come back on and will lie.
-Neighbors leave and will not ask for help, you have to offer.
-Little girls can watch disney movies over and over and not get bored.
-Brew coffee, fill thermos, unplug coffee maker and use the power for heat.
-It is very good to have natural gas water heaters that need no power, even better to have public water that stays pressurized.
-Kerosene lamps make a stink but are efficient and silent.
-Neigbors with generators will run their gennys 24 hours per day. Learn to sleep with something banging along at 3600 rpm.
-Lots of booze, Jim Beam is running low.
-It is also very good to have a gas powered range to cook food. Neighbors like ramen noodles.

I was fortunate to be as prepared as I was and the recent generator threads here on TBN helped me decide on sticking to my extension cord routine. I was a boxknife and three wire nuts away from making a suicide cord to energize my home to run the gas furnace. It was a backup plan that I didn't need. Do you want to know how many doorbells I saw lit up from folks backfeeding their homes?

 

[lopezian]

We (me, wife, 4yo, 1yo) just got our power back this morning here in my part of the south puget sound. So that was 80 hours of no power with temps in the mid 20s to the 30s.

Wow, Highbeam, I feel for you. My wife has a condo in the Fremont district of Seattle and she never lost power during or after the storm. Here on Lopez we lost power but it was quickly restored. Fortunately most people here are well prepared to be without ferry service or power for at least a week. Heat is not a problem because everybody here has a woodstove. Many folks here (my immediate neighbor, for one) have never had electirc power and still use outhouses, so it makes no difference to them.

Still there are lessons to be learned. For me, the lesson is it doesn't matter how many chainsaws you have if you don't have any gas to run them. Keep that 50:1 gas can full, especially in the winter.

And you can't have too many dual-fuel lanterns. When in doubt, buy another. We humans just don't do well in the dark.

Oh, and those inexpensive Costco tents? Not worth the money if you have any type of weather exposure! The one tent I secured to the ground shredded the plastic canvas-like material, and the other one that wasn't secured lifted off and landing upside down across the field with its legs in the air like an upended bug.

 

[Cottonhawk]

We lost few trees and without power for two days. I was very fortunate that my gas powered 8k watts generator worked well (I have a 150 gal gas tank full) to keep the well pump, ref, freezer, TV, computer, stove, and lights going in the house. The barn was without power and we were lucky that it was not freezing during our power outage.
My plan after this power outage is to install a 16k LP powered generater with automatic switch for the house and move the 8k generator down to the barn and shop area.

 

[Thomas]

You folks have indeed had enough of hardships for while...yikes.

Yup strange weather here on the northeast,just days away from the first day of winter and were still wearing t-*****...no snow in sight and warm temps hanging around.

 

[Egon]

Lets be real quiet and not temp the weather Controllers Thomas.

 

[Thomas]

"Lets be real quiet and not temp the weather Controllers"

All I am gonner do set and smile.

 

[tallyho8]

I feel sorry for all those in the Northwest who are going through such violent weather conditions and through the clean-up afterwards. You can start to imagine what the people in the New Orleans area went through with Katrina. After 16 months, 1/4 of the town still has no electricity and many other utilities are still out and 1/3 of the red lights are not yet working. Repairs have not yet begun on 100,000 homes, many of whom are waiting on their checks for repairs from the Road Home Program. The Virginia company the federal gov't hired to pass out the checks to the 100,000 homeowners has passed out only 97 checks so far. That company gets $70,000,000 just to pass out the checks and now they are getting $17,000,000 more to send their poor distressed workers home to Virginia on leave because this work (handing out checks) is so stressful to them. I guess the population of New Orleans will have to live in tents and FEMA trailers for another year while these workers recover from their stress. While the citizens of the USA have been very willing to help out in this disaster, and people in the New Orleans really appreciate all that Americans are trying to do for them, the gov't seems to be doing everything it can to slow down the progress and see that the recovery money ends up in the pockets of bureaucrats instead.

 

[turnkey4099]

kOver here on the east side of WA it was bad but nothing like on the West side. Spokane got it bad. Still had a few people without power last night per the news. People down here (50 miles S of Spokane) losst a few trees, out of power for short periods and some shingles.

This was the third high wind storm in a month. I lost 1/2 of a beautiful huge blue spruce. My fault as it developed two co-dominant stems and I didn't crawl up an remove one of them. Fortunately it didn't 'ruin' the tree, just leaves it a bit bare on oneside and thus unbalanced looking.

Governor declared the entire state a disaster area which I think was a bit overboard. West side for sure but I don't see it on this side of the mountains.

Harry K