Archive for December, 2007
a storm is coming
I had actually prepared for a storm, stopped by the local grocer's and mindlessly picked up things - long kitchen matches for candles, tarps, sealant, a drain auger, cement patch the Friday before. During the week, I'd been dreaming of tornadoes, likely in expectation of the "Tin Man" miniseries. In the previews, the words repeat "a storm is coming."The show was on when the winds began. I rushed through my homework to send it off in case the power would fail. Then I walked outside on the deck and listened. The howling wind combined with groaning sounds from the earth that I'd never heard before. It was creepy, making me uneasy, trying to pinpoint whether the sound was due to the wind or if the ground was preparing to open and swallow up the house. Back upstairs in my art room, "Tin Man" had started over, and I watched the scene where a tornado whisks DG off to an alternate universe. Then I wandered into a lively paranormal chat on my computer where a bunch of strangers discussed the possibility of traveling between alternate universes. I typed "it will be any moment now.." and pffft. The rest of the sentence would have been ..."and the electricity will cut out."
It popped back on for a short while, and about 12:30 am I heard two transformers pop, and it was out. It's not uncommon for the power to be out for an evening or a day. In the morning, I called into work to say I would wait until there as enough sunlight to see the road and found out power was out for the town, in fact for all towns in the entire county. Besides that we were totally blocked in by fallen trees and lines and couldn't get out. We were isolated. Fifty miles away, a massive flood had taken out a section of the freeway and the cities in that location which was the exit to the coast, further complicating routes.
The wind was still howling. The radio station remaining on the air said that the wind meter broke off at 81 mph. Later I heard that at another town 20 miles out, the wind speed was recorded at 122 mph before their meter broke.
The first day, I worked where needed, in the kitchen. Every once in awhile I'd look out the big windows of the cafeteria over the bay to see if the wind had died down a little, but it continued on and on for 22 hours. I've never seen a storm that hovered over an area for that amount of time.
The next day there were long lines in a run on grocery stores to get any available food and supplies, and to find generators. A boil order was placed on water for one of the local communities. A resident told me, "How are we supposed to boil our water?" There were no functioning gas pumps for a few days in our area. Our IS department had moved several computers to an area with generator power, and we were able to see the flooding reports in the adjacent county. The photos were so overwhelming, it seemed unbelievable, not unlike some horrible alternate universe. The Walmart there had water up to the top of its doors. Besides homes, people lost their cattle and horses to the flood waters. The flooding was expected to head our way, but we were lucky, because it arrived during one of our lowest tides for the season. It was so dark. I left work the second evening and could not see my feet or any surroundings close to the building, having to feel my way out to the parking lot, where there was enough natural light to make out my truck.
Our power was out for 5 days. Thankfully, the PUD got power back to customers just as the temperatures dipped below freezing. I heard they didn't even come in to eat. Their coworkers drove food out to them, because they didn't want to be slowed down in their effort to get the electricity back on. We owe them. Overall, I'd say we were very lucky. Everyone's reviewing what worked and didn't work and planning to improve whatever possible.
Personally, I lost time and sleep and a bit of my nerves. The food in the refrigerators had to be discarded but the chest freezer was saved with a new generator ($$$) Very lucky this time around.
Next time is tomorrow, but it is not projected to be as bad. The main concern are trees that are already damaged may come down. My mother received an automated call on her phone tonight (something new) - a weather warning saying "a storm is coming."
