North winds blow! South winds blow!...
Windpocalypse 2006 has come and gone. Forget cats and dogs, Thursday afternoon it was raining pigs and ponies! The rain was coming down so hard and so fast, that the storm drains couldn't keep up and there was standing water in the roadway. Driving in it was Not. Fun. Thursday night the wind started to pick up. They had been warning about possible power outtages, and they were right. Sure enough, at about 12:45 AM Friday morning we lost power. We, unfortunately, had no battery-powered radio, so we could get no news about what was happening. I stayed up for a bit and watched the trees outside our deck window bending. I was especially worried about the big cedar not 5 feet from our deck. The occasional sounds of wood cracking as tree limbs and entire trees came down was eerie in the pitch dark. Couldn't see a thing outside, except for the hospital lights in the distance. There were occasional flashes of light in the distance, but never any thunder, which led me to think that perhaps they were power lines or transformers blowing out, and not lightning. The weird thing was that it wasn't really raining that much, just this constant, immense wind. I told K that as bad as this was, I still could not imagine what it would be like to live through a hurricane.
In the morning L, a co-worker who lives in our condo development, stopped by with a report. Work was entirely out of power, huge trees were down around campus, all schools were closed, and we began to get an idea of the extent of the damage. Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, Woodinville all were without power. She gave me some more wood and half a dozen of those logs-in-a-bag that you just stick in your fireplace and light. We needed to get provisions, so we headed out, thinking to go into Seattle. Big mistake. I knew they had closed the 520 bridge the night before, but figured since the winds had died down, they would have reopened it by then. Not so. Unbeknowst to us, it was closed for repairs from damage it took the night before. 520 was a parking lot, and we got off as quickly as we got on, following a stream of other cars that were bailing out via an on-ramp that was now a makeshift exit ramp. Not sure what to do next, we headed toward Bellevue, and as luck would have it, came across a grocery store that was open (and crowded). They must have been running on backup generators, because only a handful of lights were on. The cooler and freezer cases were all dark, the meat department was completely void of any organic matter. As I headed down an aisle, a woman said "buy enough for several days." I got a couple loaves of bread, jelly, a Catholic-family sized jar of peanut butter, a couple boxes of cereal, several cans of tuna, and, in a rare moment of low-key panic, several bags of beef jerkey! I had half a tank of gas, and was hoping to find a gas station that was operating, but no luck there. We went home, ate, and I slept for a bit. Towards afternoon, the cold was really getting to K, making her pain worse, so we decided to set out in search of a hotel. I called a few folks who live farther away to see what the story was. Finally managed to get ahold of jfrog78, who confirmed that parts of Renton and Kent had power. So we decided to head for Kent. Packed up the car, and hit the road. I really wish they would make drivers retake the written drivers test for road laws every few years - people seemed to have completely forgotten how to behave at a 4-way stop when the lights are out! Headed down 405, and lo and behold, downtown Bellevue was all lit up! We exited the highway, thinking to at least get some more gas before continuing on. Even though lights were working, traffic was a complete and utter mess. We spotted a Denny's that was open, and headed there for some hot food. Despite a long line, we didn't have to wait too terribly long, and before we knew it, we were seated at a table, and I started Google-searching for hotels via my cell phone (gotta love technology!). Nothing. Everybody was booked solid. After we left, we then went in search of gas. Circled around Bellevue, and discovered that only the core downtown area had power, go a few blocks in any direction, and it was pitch black like everywhere else. The gas station nearest to the Denny's *was* open, but apparently some kind of incident had taken place, because a cop car and several ambulances were there and the whole place was taped off. Passed another gas station that was already closed, before we saw one that was open and had a mass of cars. Pulled in, only to be told by someone leaving that they were all out of gas. Damn Bellevue soccer moms filling up their huge SUV tanks! I parked and called a few more hotels without any luck. Then I called the 800 number for Expedia. There literally was nothing in the entire Eastside area! We went to the Bellevue Barnes and Noble, which had the only fully operational Starbucks in probably the entire east King County area! The Starbucks and the B&N were packed like I'd never seen. People camped out on the floor reading books, taking advantage of the wireless connectivity. The baristas in Starbucks were running like a finely tuned machine, cranking out drinks like nobody's business! Hot drinks procured, we gave up the search for a hotel and headed home. We'd been out for 4 hours, and had only gone a few miles from home!
When we got home, I lit another fire, lit up all the candles and lanterns we had around the house. We played a round of Ogre Bash, followed by a very quick round of Family Flux, and then I read The Boy's bedtime story by candlelight. Around 10:30 PM, I went to bed, and almost as soon as I had laid my head on my pillow, the lights came on! I heard K and The Boy whooping for joy, and got up. Indeed, the power was back on! I put out the candles and went back to bed.
This morning, we're finding out just how extensive the damage was. Over a million people without power over several counties. Some areas they're saying will take several days before power is restored, so we were lucky. Everywhere there are downed trees and tree limbs, and debris everywhere. Houses and cars smashed by falling trees. We've had so much rain that the ground has become saturated with water, and it didn't take that much to start toppling even the biggest of the trees. We were thinking about going to see a movie today, but the theatre we were going to go to is still without power, apparently. The power has flickered a few times, making me somewhat leery about the stability of the grid at the moment. But we're safe and sound, and dry, so that's a good thing. We even saw a bald eagle during our outing yesterday, which is always a welcome sight.
Hope that my fellow PNW folks are safe, and not long without power. Seattle-area LJ folks, please check in with at least a short post as soon as you are able, so we know everyone is ok.
UPDATE: Ok, I've heard from mysticalforest, silenceleigh and her brood, and bigfootcountry. Still need to hear from irishninja, jfrog78, ms_monkey and hubby, redmondmenace, and hghkytduyfh (even though he almost never posts anything).
UPDATE 12/17: irishninja is accounted for, after a whopping 62 hours with no power! I've seen e-mail from redmondmenace as well as jfrog78, so I know they're ok. ms_monkey doesn't have broadband access,, but I'm hoping she'll check in soon.
In the morning L, a co-worker who lives in our condo development, stopped by with a report. Work was entirely out of power, huge trees were down around campus, all schools were closed, and we began to get an idea of the extent of the damage. Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, Woodinville all were without power. She gave me some more wood and half a dozen of those logs-in-a-bag that you just stick in your fireplace and light. We needed to get provisions, so we headed out, thinking to go into Seattle. Big mistake. I knew they had closed the 520 bridge the night before, but figured since the winds had died down, they would have reopened it by then. Not so. Unbeknowst to us, it was closed for repairs from damage it took the night before. 520 was a parking lot, and we got off as quickly as we got on, following a stream of other cars that were bailing out via an on-ramp that was now a makeshift exit ramp. Not sure what to do next, we headed toward Bellevue, and as luck would have it, came across a grocery store that was open (and crowded). They must have been running on backup generators, because only a handful of lights were on. The cooler and freezer cases were all dark, the meat department was completely void of any organic matter. As I headed down an aisle, a woman said "buy enough for several days." I got a couple loaves of bread, jelly, a Catholic-family sized jar of peanut butter, a couple boxes of cereal, several cans of tuna, and, in a rare moment of low-key panic, several bags of beef jerkey! I had half a tank of gas, and was hoping to find a gas station that was operating, but no luck there. We went home, ate, and I slept for a bit. Towards afternoon, the cold was really getting to K, making her pain worse, so we decided to set out in search of a hotel. I called a few folks who live farther away to see what the story was. Finally managed to get ahold of jfrog78, who confirmed that parts of Renton and Kent had power. So we decided to head for Kent. Packed up the car, and hit the road. I really wish they would make drivers retake the written drivers test for road laws every few years - people seemed to have completely forgotten how to behave at a 4-way stop when the lights are out! Headed down 405, and lo and behold, downtown Bellevue was all lit up! We exited the highway, thinking to at least get some more gas before continuing on. Even though lights were working, traffic was a complete and utter mess. We spotted a Denny's that was open, and headed there for some hot food. Despite a long line, we didn't have to wait too terribly long, and before we knew it, we were seated at a table, and I started Google-searching for hotels via my cell phone (gotta love technology!). Nothing. Everybody was booked solid. After we left, we then went in search of gas. Circled around Bellevue, and discovered that only the core downtown area had power, go a few blocks in any direction, and it was pitch black like everywhere else. The gas station nearest to the Denny's *was* open, but apparently some kind of incident had taken place, because a cop car and several ambulances were there and the whole place was taped off. Passed another gas station that was already closed, before we saw one that was open and had a mass of cars. Pulled in, only to be told by someone leaving that they were all out of gas. Damn Bellevue soccer moms filling up their huge SUV tanks! I parked and called a few more hotels without any luck. Then I called the 800 number for Expedia. There literally was nothing in the entire Eastside area! We went to the Bellevue Barnes and Noble, which had the only fully operational Starbucks in probably the entire east King County area! The Starbucks and the B&N were packed like I'd never seen. People camped out on the floor reading books, taking advantage of the wireless connectivity. The baristas in Starbucks were running like a finely tuned machine, cranking out drinks like nobody's business! Hot drinks procured, we gave up the search for a hotel and headed home. We'd been out for 4 hours, and had only gone a few miles from home!
When we got home, I lit another fire, lit up all the candles and lanterns we had around the house. We played a round of Ogre Bash, followed by a very quick round of Family Flux, and then I read The Boy's bedtime story by candlelight. Around 10:30 PM, I went to bed, and almost as soon as I had laid my head on my pillow, the lights came on! I heard K and The Boy whooping for joy, and got up. Indeed, the power was back on! I put out the candles and went back to bed.
This morning, we're finding out just how extensive the damage was. Over a million people without power over several counties. Some areas they're saying will take several days before power is restored, so we were lucky. Everywhere there are downed trees and tree limbs, and debris everywhere. Houses and cars smashed by falling trees. We've had so much rain that the ground has become saturated with water, and it didn't take that much to start toppling even the biggest of the trees. We were thinking about going to see a movie today, but the theatre we were going to go to is still without power, apparently. The power has flickered a few times, making me somewhat leery about the stability of the grid at the moment. But we're safe and sound, and dry, so that's a good thing. We even saw a bald eagle during our outing yesterday, which is always a welcome sight.
Hope that my fellow PNW folks are safe, and not long without power. Seattle-area LJ folks, please check in with at least a short post as soon as you are able, so we know everyone is ok.
UPDATE: Ok, I've heard from mysticalforest, silenceleigh and her brood, and bigfootcountry. Still need to hear from irishninja, jfrog78, ms_monkey and hubby, redmondmenace, and hghkytduyfh (even though he almost never posts anything).
UPDATE 12/17: irishninja is accounted for, after a whopping 62 hours with no power! I've seen e-mail from redmondmenace as well as jfrog78, so I know they're ok. ms_monkey doesn't have broadband access,, but I'm hoping she'll check in soon.