quote: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.
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. Posts: 2907 | Registered: Nov 2005
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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.
Posts: 3546 | Registered: Jul 2002
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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.
Posts: 186 | Registered: Jul 1999
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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.
Posts: 1236 | Registered: Mar 2002
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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)
Posts: 2711 | Registered: Mar 2004
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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.
Posts: 7050 | Registered: Feb 2004
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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.
Posts: 105 | Registered: Oct 2005
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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.
Posts: 2907 | Registered: Nov 2005
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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.
Posts: 1006 | Registered: Jun 2006
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quote: 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.
Have you considered getting a manual pump backup for the well?
Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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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. ^_^
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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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 Posts: 1539 | Registered: Jul 2004
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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 Posts: 1539 | Registered: Jul 2004
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quote: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
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. Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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quote: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. ^_^
Yaayyy!
Everybody hire this guy to make your web sites. He rocks.
Posts: 1006 | Registered: Jun 2006
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quote: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
Wasn't that incredible? It was like all of the Puget Sound area became a wandering hoarde of locusts, roaming and consuming batteries and flash lights wherever they could smell electricity.
My husband and I found the LAST FLASH LIGHT in the entire Edmonds/Lynnwood/Shoreline area Friday night. Then the power came back on for us Saturday morning.
Posts: 1006 | Registered: Jun 2006
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quote: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. ^_^
Yaayyy!
Everybody hire this guy to make your web sites. He rocks.
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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!)
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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quote:Originally posted by ketchupqueen: bev, do you have a water purification system? *curious* Like, a filter or something?
We've got standard small filters on the water coming out of the well, but I don't think they actually filter out anything dangerous.
I have a small camping filter, but its filter would get used up really quickly if it were used too much.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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I'm so glad our power is back on. Good thing Jux could take a hot shower before flying home. Can you imagine a 6 hour flight feeling gross? (Matt-If you see this, have loads of fun back home and hugs & kisses to your fam.) My co-worker (who lives in Renton) was told that the power would be out until Friday.... can you believe that? Almost a full week out.
Posts: 168 | Registered: Feb 2006
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Sorry, all -- Nathan and I are just fine. We've been hosting those without power, though, so that's why I've been tardy in reassuring you all.
We lost power for about 6 hours, but we are on the same grid as the hospital, so that always makes a difference.
My former mother-in-law just got power back today, and I have several colleagues that are still without power.
Just as an FYI: Nathan and I will be flying back east for Christmas Thursday a.m. and won't return 'till the 28th, so don't worry if you don't hear much . . .
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