Let me first qualify this post with a disclosure about the subject matter. What follows may be akin to being forced to watch your neighbor’s vacation pictures with narration. Please feel free to skip out. I promise not to hold it against you.
If you’ve been watching the news you’re already aware that the mother of all storms blew through here Thursday night. 70 mile an hour winds took down trees and in turn power lines up and down the NW coast. Greg ventured out yesterday morning, as men with trucks tend to do after inclement weather hits. He said he’d never seen anything like it. Huge Douglas Firs laying on the roads everywhere, power lines taken out by the fallen trees. Storm debris in every direction.
Thursday afternoon, Caitlin and I headed to the grocery store to stock up on bread, hamburger and chicken. Things we could either grill or prepare on the gas range stove top. We always lose power when a storm hits, the question is for how long. By bedtime, the wind felt especially ominous. We felt a huge shake to the house and heard a very loud sound. Greg headed outside with flashlight in hand. No sign of anything.
When the power goes out we all sleep in the same room. Caitlin on the camping cot and Leil in bed with Greg and I. Guess who doesn’t get any sleep on these nights. Hint: It’s not the kids. Simba slept at my feet. Hand warmers were placed under Titan’s cave, enough heat to keep a gecko warm through a cold night.
In the morning we headed outside to inspect the damage, determine how big the cleanup job would be. We instantly discovered what the loud sound was. One of our oldest Douglas Fir’s sitting on the edge of the forest had fallen. It then started to sink in how lucky we were. The 100 foot tree had snapped at the base and fell straight back into the woods. We spent the day thanking our angels. If it fell West it would have hit the propane tank. A little more South, the house. East, it blocks the driveway requiring a logging caliber chain saw to be cut up and removed. But it fell North. Straight into the woods. Over the next several hundred years it will compost back to the earth. No action required.
As a foot note. This tree had no signs of illness. Its needles looked perfectly healthy. It was completely rotted at the core. A bit scary. These are mainly for my Mom and Dad, but if you want to see more pics of the tree I’ve posted some on Flickr.
As of Saturday afternoon, our power is back on. Cable modem and all. I think I secretly enjoyed not having internet access. We spent the power outage time cleaning the house. There are still 100′s of thousands of people without power all over the Puget Sound. I’m thankful that we’re all safe, warm and together, looking forward to enjoying these final days leading up to Christmas.
WOW! Thank goodness the tree decided not to hit your house or the propane tank. Blocking the driveway would’ve been bad, but somehow it doesn’t seem as immediately dangerous as those other two options. Keep safe this winter! Oh, I don’t know if you have any, but we stock battery-free flashlights in our house. They are kinetic energy ones. All you have to do is to shake vigorously (okay, imagine American Pie and you’ll have an idea in what manner to shake) and then it works. Safer than candles.
Glad you are all okay and that your power is back on. Glad we fared well through our season of windy storms and power outages where I live (called hurricanes)…
Wow – I live in Lynnwood and we didn’t even lose power, but 2 of our neighbors had huge trees fall directly ON their houses. An angel was certainly watching over you, making sure that tree missed anything it could have damaged. Glad you’re all safe!
Glad the tree didn’t do any damage. We were lucky here on Whidbey Island (some parts wasn’t I am sure). We were without power for 24 hours though.
Wow–how scary! I’m so glad you are all all right!
Very glad you all are safe! This past year, we moved into a house that has a couple of huge oak trees surrounding it. Every time we have a storm, I pray that they don’t get struck by lightening.
Hello Kathy, I was wondering how you were doing. I know the island had a lot of fallen trees. I am glad to hear you have power (and heat). We got ours yeaterday afernoon. Stay warm, it is cold !! Clarice
glad to hear you were safe and sound — those large trees are deceptive! we missed one falling in on us seven years ago when we lived on an island… it is loud, scary and strange that they rot from within.
nonetheless, glad you are safe!
susan
You folks up north had it so much worse that we did. We had spotty power outages in that many lost power early around 6:00 – 8:00, and others like us didn’t lose it until we were in bed. The power loss was mainly from blowing transformers – you could see the golden glow against the clouds as they blew all over town. Trees fell in places, but mainly just lots of branches and debris. We lost some shingles off the roof but were able to get them replaced yesterday and the roofer charged just over $40. I’m so glad that tree missed your house and fell the way it did!
i was thinking about you. i lost power for about 6 hours through the night so it was quit painless. it is good that those storms usually come from the the south and south west isn’t it? it sure is amazing how much damage wind can do. i am so glad that you fared well.
Hi Kathy, WOW! That tree is huge and can not imagine 70 mph winds. I bet you could feel the impact when it fell. Your dad wishes it were here to make a bridge across the creek. I wish I was there to walk on it. Being without power for a few days can be an adventure, more than that not much fun. We are thankful that everyone survived including Titan. Love to all.
I agree with everyone…thank goodness it did fall exactly where it did! We have hurricanes here and know all to well what storms can do to trees, huge ones! Lucky Christmas for you all!
I’m SO glad to hear you are all safe and sound. And so pleased to hear you’ll let that tree be.
You got me to wondering about what a electricity-free Christmas would be like. Thrilling and horrifying all at the same time. Cozy and sweet, all quiet candles and snuggling, but food rotting in the fridge. Hmmmm…
Let’s hope you don’t have to try it out!
I’m glad you’re safe, warm, and together too.
So relieved you and your family are safe. We had a few trees fall down in our neighborhood, but thankfully no damage to any homes.
So glad you all came out unscathed.
Oh, it is ALWAYS the mom that gets no sleep when crisis or illness looms at night, isn’t it. I was just re-reading the Nutcracker ballet story and was struck by the forshadowing — Marie gets up in the middle of the night to check on the little sick nutcracker and cuddles with him on the couch and then her mom comes and finds her later and covers her up….
Anyhoo – Hope the power is restored around the area quickly!
I was thinking of you when I heard about your storms on the news. Glad your tree fell towards the woods and didn’t hurt anyone. It’s hard to lose those trees, they’re like old friends. But why did I think I would see snow in your photos? I thought I heard on the news that it was a snowstorm with hurricane type winds.
Stay safe and have a great Christmas.
Wow — that was quite a tree! I’m glad you and your family are all OK. We’ve had close calls with fallen trees like that before — it’s scary!
My sister lost power as well. I need to call her and see how they’re doing. I’m glad all is well where you are.
I don’t see the rot in the pictures (of course, I don’t really know what I’m looking for), but that is scary that you can’t tell by looking at the outside. Those are some magnificent pictures – you have some beautiful property!
It’s simply amazing that you, living near the woods, would get your power back and we, living within walking distance of the grocery store are still without power on Monday. I surely don’t understand how these things work. Glad you all are warm and safe!
I live in Kent and we finally got our power back on at 3pm this afternoon. Glad to know you got your power soon after the storm.
Even though the power is out, it’s good to hear everyone is safe.
Wow. I can’t believe how it snapped. I thought typically Doug Firs just uproot- that is crazy. We lost three 70 foot pines and also had angels over us as they fell in the best possible places or were propped up by the fallen one. We have been struggling with the tree huggers in us to decide whether or not we should remove a 130 foot doug fir from the corner of our lot. It can’t fall anywhere without really crushing someone’s house. What to do. Not sure but this is a bit eye opening. I am thankful you guys are all safe.
Glad you guys are ok. We worry so about the trees around our house, during these storms we sleep together too, on the main level of the house. It only takes a moment and snap. Our backyard treehouse roof was caved in by a huge limb, that’s enough excitement for us. Happy Holidays!
I saw your pictures on Flickr and wow. It’s been so strange: We were very lucky at our house, no damage, just cable outage for a day or so. So it’s only been bit by bit that it’s been impressed on me how awful this storm was. I think even for people who “just” lost power; seeing a car downtown that was parked for the last time, since a tree was blown onto and through it, and seeing it on Friday of last week, then again two days ago–I mean to say that we can’t catch up yet. Some people still don’t have power. Seeing the Times yesterday with its multilingual public service announcement stopped me in my tracks. We were — nearly all of us — so lucky.
[In case you can't tell by the several comments on "older" posts, I'm just catching up on your posts after an unintentional internet absence.
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