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SEATTLE - Residents of the Pacific Northwest struggled to stay warm Saturday after the worst windstorm in more than a decade knocked out power to more than 1.5 million homes and businesses and killed at least six people.

Nearly 700,000 customers in Washington and Oregon still had no power Saturday, and utilities said some might have to wait into next week for their lights to go back on.

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Our power came back on sometime this morning. Before I go and have a blazingly hot shower (YES!) I wanted to check up on the other Hatrackers in the area. Any of you still without power?* I saw some pretty crazy things during the storm: branches ripped off of trees, pink lightning, a guy blown off his feet.

It was really weird how the power grid came up in patches. There were dark blocks surrounded by buildings all lit up, and then there was our block, which was kind of the opposite.


*Don't rush to answer or anything.
 

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Posted by Shigosei (Member # 3831) on :
 
We lost power for a few hours Thursday night. We're fine, although there's a lot of downed trees in the area. A tree fell on my brother's girlfriend's house, though. Fortunately, it didn't do much damage--just hit the eaves.
 

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Posted by Mazer (Member # 192) on :
 
I was fortunate enough to maintain power, (I live just inside Everett, in the Silver Lake/Mill Creek area,) but they sent me home from work Friday morning, (Woodinville) because of the lack of power.

Driving home through Bothell, Kenmore and Lynwood was interesting. Debris all over the road, but enough cleared to drive through.
 

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Posted by Earendil18 (Member # 3180) on :
 
That's interesting because Eastern WA also got some very high winds with snow/freezing rain a day or two back, complete with power losses.
 

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Posted by romanylass (Member # 6306) on :
 
We *just* got power back 1/2 an hour ago. Luckily, we did not lose too much food, and we have a fireplace and a camp stove.
(I live in Federal Way)
 

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Posted by Sterling (Member # 8096) on :
 
I'm in Vancouver (WA). We lost power overnight. Ridiculous wind.
 

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Posted by beverly (Member # 6246) on :
 
We just got power back this evening as well. Since we have a well with an electrically powered pump, we had no running water. Our pond began overflowing and flooding our pasture and we had to rescue our pet goat from where he was stranded. (He is now officially freaked out.)

We managed to capture some rain water coming off our roof before the sky decided to dry up completely. We had plenty of water from the above-ground pool in the backyard with which we could flush our toilets. We later got some water from my sister in town. We cooked a bit on the woodburning stove and used candles and flashlights.

All in all, it was quite an adventure! It has actually inspired Porter and I to have at least one week annually where we go off electricity and don't use any gas as a sort of vacation/retreat. It will be even more interesting when we have our own supply of eggs and milk.
 

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Posted by Primal Curve (Member # 3587) on :
 
Sounds like a wind generator would have come in handy.
 

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Posted by Earendil18 (Member # 3180) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Primal Curve:
Sounds like a wind generator would have come in handy.

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Duuuude, we could've, like, totally blown the megawatts to the mAX.
 

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Posted by mistaben (Member # 8721) on :
 
Here by University Village in Seattle we only had a power hiccup overnight Thurs->Fri, but some friends of ours 5 minutes down the road are still without power, and it's been pretty cold. Two neighbors had their stairwall fill up with 2 feet of water and their carpets ruined. Incredibly, 2 families moved out on Friday and management had the impacted families move directly into the vacated apartments!

We're grateful for our blessings, and glad we could help some who weren't so lucky.
 

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Posted by Libbie (Member # 9529) on :
 
We're A-okay. Had no power for all of Friday and some of Saturday, but thankfully it's back.

My snakes got really cold, but they're recovering just fine.
 

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Posted by Libbie (Member # 9529) on :
 
Has erosomniac been around? Anybody heard from him in other threads?
 

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Posted by Juxtapose (Member # 8837) on :
 
His computer, like mine, got fried by power surges. As far as I know, he's only been Hatracking from work. He's been pretty busy with Christmas orders, so that doesn't leave him much time.

I can try to get a hold of him if you need to get in contact.
 

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Posted by Libbie (Member # 9529) on :
 
Oh, poop.

He was designing my new business web site!

Oh, well. I've experienced power-surge 'puter fries before. I'm sure he'll have things back up and working again at some point. Thanks for letting me know.
 

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Posted by Storm Saxon (Member # 3101) on :
 

quote:

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All in all, it was quite an adventure! It has actually inspired Porter and I to have at least one week annually where we go off electricity and don't use any gas as a sort of vacation/retreat. It will be even more interesting when we have our own supply of eggs and milk.

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Have you considered getting a manual pump backup for the well?
 

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Posted by erosomniac (Member # 6834) on :
 
I just saw this - Libbie, I'm alright. My computer is toast, but I'm 99.9% sure the hard drive with my working files is fine. I'll have a new system up in the next few days, and your site will be done on schedule. ^_^
 

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Posted by romanylass (Member # 6306) on :
 
Is that everyone now?
 

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Posted by erosomniac (Member # 6834) on :
 
I know Princess Leah is in the area, but she also goes to college, and I'm not sure where.

Did Shan check in with anyone?
 

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Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
 
bev, do you have a water purification system? *curious* Like, a filter or something?
 

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Posted by erosomniac (Member # 6834) on :
 
The death toll is now at 8.


 

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Posted by romanylass (Member # 6306) on :
 
No, I have not heard from her. I'll go e-mail her.
 

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Posted by romanylass (Member # 6306) on :
 

 

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Posted by erosomniac (Member # 6834) on :
 
Oh, and Puppy over in Kirkland. I have no contact info, though.
 

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Posted by Puppy (Member # 6721) on :
 
I'm in Bothell, actually, and I work in Kirkland.

My house was out of power for 16 hours, and my office was out for more than 24. A bunch of my coworkers are still without electricity, and my cousin had to hold her wedding reception in an apartment lit by candles (which was actually pretty cool).

Between the apocalyptic (read: actually very minor by Rocky Mountain or Canadian standards) snowstorm a couple weeks ago and this windstorm, my team at work has lost a week and a half of a five-week milestone period, which is pretty stressful.

Otherwise, we're fine. Didn't lose anything important in the fridge, and we're all physically okay. I'm actually starting to think that "no power week" would be a great tradition to start up in my family, too
 

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Posted by Puppy (Member # 6721) on :
 
It was funny, though ... on Saturday, when my immediate area got power, basically the entire city converged on us at once, bought all the food and gas, honked a lot, and then left
 

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Posted by erosomniac (Member # 6834) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Puppy:
It was funny, though ... on Saturday, when my immediate area got power, basically the entire city converged on us at once, bought all the food and gas, honked a lot, and then left

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Same here. Trying to find gas over the course of 3 days on a near-empty tank was no fun - nor was paying near $3 a gallon.
 

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Posted by Libbie (Member # 9529) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by erosomniac:
I just saw this - Libbie, I'm alright. My computer is toast, but I'm 99.9% sure the hard drive with my working files is fine. I'll have a new system up in the next few days, and your site will be done on schedule. ^_^

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quote:

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Originally posted by Puppy:
It was funny, though ... on Saturday, when my immediate area got power, basically the entire city converged on us at once, bought all the food and gas, honked a lot, and then left

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quote:

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Originally posted by Libbie:

quote:

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Originally posted by erosomniac:
I just saw this - Libbie, I'm alright. My computer is toast, but I'm 99.9% sure the hard drive with my working files is fine. I'll have a new system up in the next few days, and your site will be done on schedule. ^_^

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Yaayyy!

Everybody hire this guy to make your web sites. He rocks.

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...she said, her new site still unseen!

Man, that's faith.
 

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Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
 
I have a friend who finally e-mailed me. Apparently her stake had run a drill where they had to go out in a tent and live off what they had in their emergency kits for a day a few months back, to test everyone's preparedness. Talk about impeccable timing! They were then flooded, then snowed in, then their power was off (came back last night!)
 

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Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by ketchupqueen:
bev, do you have a water purification system? *curious* Like, a filter or something?

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