Storm Survival: Day 6
Today is the first I’ve had access to anything resembling wireless – Day 6 of the Worst windstorm in Seattle in a decade has been less than fun.
Was finally able to get gas (power has been out, meaning gas pumps don’t work) this morning, and the downtown of Redmond, my nearest town, is finally online. My current techno-salvation is Starbucks. Unlike my home on Union Hill, in the woods just past Redmond, where I still can’t see a single house with power.
For fun, here’ s a photo of what I found on my driveway Fri. morning:
If I was supposed to return a phone call / e-mail / or do something for you, but didn’t, now you know why :)
Jill, the dogs, and myself are doing ok – hopefully we’ll have power (and some normality) back soon. If nothing else, experiences like this sure hand you back some perspective on technology and innovation (ha ha!). More later.
Glad to hear your ok, seems to be a lot of people around without power still. This morning there were 250k without power. MS campus was dead….over on the west side of the pond, I thought it was an eye opener to have no cable (or internet at home) for the first day of the storm, I can’t imagine four days with no power!….
thx Josh – It’s quite primative up where I live – fires everywhere, piles of debris. It’d be really interesting if it wasn’t where I live :)
Geeez, now I feel bad feeling bad for the 1,000 left in Portland without power. Hey, come on down to our Silicone Forest, it didn’t blow down. Ok, my Comcast went out and I’d already seen all the Will & Grace reruns anyway. Kidding aside, feel for you guys and couldn’t imagine being this long without power.
Keep safe!!
Kris
I can’t believe we didn’t get one hurricane in the Gulf Coast, but you guys up there got one, AFTER hurricane season!
My friend up there got lucky and kept her power, but she stayed with her daughter who has a generator just in case. She wrote about people calling into the news that they were freezing in the 28 degree temps (I’m guessing/hoping they weren’t being literal). Later she wrote that she heard reports of 100 people being hospitalized for carbon monoxide exposure, with one death. My sympathies to all those affected!
I asked my friend whether the weather folks missed this one (like ours did with Allison), or whether people just didn’t heed the warnings. She guessed that people didn’t believe the warnings — maybe they thought they were exagerating. Hmm, that sounds a little familiar.
Our prayers are with you all! We’ve been there ourselves (except we were sweating instead of shivering) and know it’s not fun to be without power following a disaster.
Man, what a pain. We came out a little better than you. We got our power back on Sunday afternoon. Still, it was not a lot of fun. I feel so bad for the people who are still without power. I was going crazy after just two days down.
I wrote a blog about our experience, though it probably pales in comparison to yours…
http://sharding.org/blog/2006/12/17/42-is-the-answer/
Kris: We’re still alive. If I were alone I’m sure I’d have moved in with a friend or escaped to a hotel, but with two people and a fireplace it can work.
Sherri: The truth is Seattle-ites are weather wimps. We don’t ever get cold weather and other than perenial rain it’s pretty mild here. So when something like this happens folks are generally unprepared: we don’t know how to drive in snow or ice, and we’re caught totally unaware of what a real storm can do to the power system – They knew the storm was coming, but wind storms are normal this time of year, just not this severe.
Hmmm, I think I should buy stock in companies that make power generators…
Sean: I’m actually happy as a pie with a day or two without power. I can turn everything off, hang by the fire, and relax. But Day 3 always sucks, and in this case, days 4,5,6, and 7 haven’t magically inverted my appreciation of powerlessness.
Thanks for the kind notes – helps in its way :)