Northwest Wind Storm

[smitesmash]

was that the winter storm around 1980?

I remember it took two days to clear off all of the fallen trees in the 2 miles between our house and langley that year. I also remember walking on/skating on deer lake, it was so frozen.

 

[Pilot]

The big storm from the east in the Portland area was December of '83. Very cold for western Oregon, wind blew more than 90 mph in the Gorge, blew down 6,500 acres of timber in the Bull Run watershed. Power poles in Oregon City had about a 15 degree list from the combination of wind and ice. In Estacada, the banana belt, where we rarely get strong east winds or cold temps we had 13 degrees and winds of about 50. Lots of folks around the east side of the Portland area were out of power for a couple weeks. The weather forecasters on the tube recently talked about bad storms and overlooked this one, focusing on SW storms, I guess.

 

[SnoFalls]

I got my power back wednesday ...

I got by fairly well ...
I didn't loose any trees, and even the debris blown down only took an hour to cleanup
We have a woodstove for heat (usually only for suplemental)
We have a smallish genny wired to a xfer panel, so we could run it occasionally
Had 8 gallons of fuel for the genny
All the vehicles were full of fuel

But, I *also* learned a few lessons
*) 8 gallons of fuel wasn't enough. After day 3 of occasional use, we we're already running out.
*) I hadn't stocked my wood pile, so at day 6 that was nearly exhausted.
*) My well pump is powered from a drop at my shop, so I also need a means to plug the genny in down there. (the pressure tank can get us by for 36 hours or so, but ...)
*) Didn't have enough potable water in the backup kit.

This is the second time in 3 years we've lost power for >3 days so I'm going to bite the bullut and get a PTO generator for the 'bota. I'll move the gas powered unit down to the shop for the well, and then I could easily power my house from the PTO one.

It's been especially bad for folks here in the Snoqualmie Valley. 6 weeks ago the entire downtown areas of North Bend and Snoqualmie flooded, and many folks were still in the middle of flood damage repairs when this power outage occured. I also have some friends nearby that STILL haven't got power restored.