The Weather in Seattle

Grumpy · Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 1:24 pm Post subject:

John,

Depending upon weather and other obligations, it is quite possible that we will be "out and about in a boat" during the holidays. Will you have any means other than 68 of communicating your wherabouts ?

Merv & Kathy on Kingfisher

Pat Anderson · Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 3:34 pm Post subject:

Well, the "weather in Seattle" (actually Fall City, Snoqualmie, etc.) is turning out to be not quite so fun for us...just had a briefing at the City from the top Puget Sound Energy government liason folks, they say Snoqualmie Valley had the worst damage to infrastructure, and may be without power for up to another week. All three 115KV mains to Snoqualmie Valley suffered massive damage from falling trees. The generator powering lights, fridge and other stuff in the house needs gas, which is hard to come by here. There is one station open, and the line is around the block. The circuit board on the natural gas forced air furnace went out, and we have been relying on the Russian fireplace. I spent the weekend bucking and splitting deadfalls in the back yard, will run out of firewood probably this evening, tomorrow morning at the latest. Temperatures are dropping below freezing every afternoon and night, so it is getting to be less and less fun camping out...As a last resort we will take to Daydream in the driveway, power with the little Honda 2000 generator, heat with the little electric heater, cook on the Wallas...

lloyds · Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 4:10 pm Post subject:

I was surprised to find that all the motels were booked this weekend. Sue was wondering what the draw was. Told her the draw was no power and people needed a warm bed and a shower. This morning we were experiencing freezing fog in the salem area. Spring had better get here pretty quick.

Pat Anderson · Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 8:24 pm Post subject:

OK, update Wednesday afternoon - we got water back yesterday when the Water District decided the little booster pump actually could be powered by a generator (about four days late, by us...), the power came back on at our house about half an hour ago or so...we'll get the furnace guy here tomorrow, things should be pretty much back to normal, whatever that is, pretty durn soon now...tonight it is still twigs and branches in the Russian fireplace, early to bed (nothing new about that however) and snuggle down under the down comforter one more night!

CatyMae n Steve · Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 9:21 pm Post subject:

starcrafttom · Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 9:28 pm Post subject:

pat sent you email. If its a gas furnace and you are waiting for them to come "relite" it. dont wait. I was once working in this racket. Worked for amergas in northen cal. Most gas heater systems have auto shut offs when the power goes off. Great idea for saftey and money generation. Now the furnace guy gets to come to your place and charge you $xxx to flip a switch on the unit, 9 out of 10 hid by a panal, count to 10 and switch it back on. Some guys will even hang out for a while and hit the unit with there hand so you thing they are doing something. I have even seen other guys break out a volt meter to "test" the unit before tripping the reset button. Low effort, high pay. I hate attics, where a lot of the units are, so I would teach folks to do it thems selves. boss chewed my ass for it when some one sent a thank you note and cookies to the office for saving them money next time.

oldgrowth · Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 5:30 pm Post subject:

I am glad most of you are getting back to normal. I am still without power.

I sure am glad we are self-sufficient. Our water system is from a hillside spring and is gravity fed to the house. We heat with wood and I have an antique generator that keeps putting along. We just have to be selective on what appliances we use and at what time. Because of the voltage fluctuation when the water heater kicks on, I do not use the computers at home when generating our own power.

Terri actually likes it when we lose power. She is hoping it does not come back on until after Christmas. I would prefer it come back on because it will be easier to keep up with the people on this site. As it is, I only go on line at work, which isn’t too bad today. I am updating the workstations and accounting program for our management office. It is a long process and I have lots of time waiting so I can catch up a bit.

After the storm, I had to cut my way out of the driveway Friday. The road going south was blocked by down power lines and down trees. The county did not attempt to open the road until Tuesday. They just put road-closed signs up. Going out to the north, I had a few trees to top on the county road to get to work and by Saturday, the Chehalis River had flooded so the county closed that road also. There is a 400 ft stretch that regularly floods and the county puts up road closed signs on it when there is more than 6” of water on the roadway because of the strong currents. Us locals go around the signs until there is more than 18” of water across the roadway. I did have some massive fir trees come down. Will probably sell them to Weyerhaeuser this spring. They are worth too much money to cut into firewood.
_________
Dave

oldgrowth · Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2006 1:06 am Post subject:

Power came back on this evening. A crew up from California repaired the lines. Joe must have sent them up when he heard of my predicament. Thanks Joe.

I have been doing my best to catch up with the post on this site since then.
________
Dave

DaveS · Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2006 3:55 pm Post subject:

My sister lives in Bellevue and is still without power! Ironically, we live in the country and have a generator set up with a Gentran which generates enough for approximately 70% of our needs (including the water well), and we were out of power about 30 hours. I'm certain that more than a few urban dwellers in Washington will begin to formulate plans to be more self sufficient.

Luna C · Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2006 10:58 pm Post subject:

No major problems here in Everett, but we have a couple of trees on our cabin in the San Juans. I added a few pics in our album. (sorry, can't remember how to attach to the message!) We will see the mess first hand NEXT weekend. I'll be brinning my chainsaw!

Pat Anderson · Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 10:27 am Post subject:

More weather in Fall City - 11" of snow, Baxter LOVES it, he does bunny hops all over, tears us up!

CatyMae n Steve · Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 10:33 am Post subject:

THAT is adorable! Reminds me of a dog we had for 16 1/2 years...Mis-T a mix poodle, cocker, terrier and who knows what else...she used to run in the snow with her nose down in it and scoop it up, throwing her head in the air, then dip down and get some more. What a hoot!

El and Bill · Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 4:54 pm Post subject:

Is Patty outside making snow angels??

TyBoo · Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 9:40 pm Post subject:

That Baxter is too cool! Sophie justs eats the snow.

Now Minnie, she is older and wiser and dresses properly. Plus she doesn't sniff around the yellow snow.

The kids, on the other hand are, well, let's call it artistic.

Robbi · Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 11:48 pm Post subject:

"I know it is here somewhere. You would think pink would show up better in the snow!

Puck

PS Love the snowwoman!? Robbi