I have a few minutes at a friend’s house to type a quick blog entry and thaw my toes and my children.
A major windstorm hit the Seattle area Thursday night, knocking down trees and leaving millions of residents without power, so says my hand-crank radio and the guy who lives inside it. My local web host has been down since power went out on Thursday and it doesn’t look like we’ll have power any time soon so you may not even be able to read this. I’m trying to switch to an out-of-town host with a reliable power supply.
Huge 100 foot tall trees flew through the air with 50+ mile winds. Several homes on our blocks had trees fall through their roofs, our mailboxes were obliterated, street light sliced off at the top, and driveway blocked by a massive tree. The temperature is in the 20s and we’re using a small kerosene heater to keep warm.
The first night we had a party, using up some of the food in our fridge and burning candles for light. At this point we’ve thrown out most of our refrigerated food and put the rest outside to stay cool. We somehow found a generator tonight but all the gas stations with power are out of gas so we can’t get fuel to run the generator.
We spent Saturday at a mall an hour away, eating at Claim Jumper, “testing” the massagers at Brookstone and trying to keep warm. I don’t think we bought anything that wasn’t edible. We’re cold and dark but we have clean clothes thanks to the friends who invited us over for dinner and laundry tonight.
We’re lucky not to have any trees through our roof. We have a gas water heater and stove so we can cook and shower. We charged our car dvd players and cell phones so we can watch a couple of movies tomorrow. We have enough kerosene to heat a room in the house for a few more days. We have granola bars and kind neighbors.
The power is estimated to come on sometime between Wednesday and Christmas Eve. Considering the number of severed power lines laying on the ground around our neighborhood and the fact that I have yet to see a single power crew here, I think Wednesday’s optimistic.
good grief! that’s crazy. I’m glad we get to hear from you. I’ve been thinking about you and your family. I”ll try to send some warm thoughts your way! What a way to end your year, eh? Good Luck!
Wow! What a year to buy a house in the Seattle area! You guys have had a tough few months! I hope the rest of the winter treats you better.
Fingers crossed that your power comes on soon and that all those trees are cleaned up. Sad so many pretty trees fell on people’s roofs! What a mess!
Wow, you guys got hit hard! I’m so sorry to see that. I live just a few cities south of you, but we didn’t get beat up nearly as bad as you did.
I hope you have power by now, I see this was written a couple of days ago. My houseguests left yesterday when their power came back on, so I have a free room and an empty washer and dryer if you are interested!
Thank goodness you are ok! I hope you guys get back up and running soon!
HolyCow!I hopeyourchristmas holidaygets better!
Somethingwrongwithmykeyboard,sorry.
I feel your pain, sister. Here’s hoping you have power by now!
I’m so glad to see the update that you are all ok. I was worried for a while there!!! What a great opportunity to really test all that preparedness mumbo jumbo we preach. You’ll have to let us all know what worked, what didn’t, and what you would really have liked to have.
Good luck staying warm and fed!! I’ll pray the power comes back on soon.
Oh Kathryn, I’m so sorry to hear what you are going through during this Christmas season. My prayers for a warm, electric Christmas miracle are headed your way. I’m glad you did not have serious damage to your home or your family.
Cuddle up, dearie.
Kathryn, SO sorry this is going on.
I’m back in Seattle, so if there’s anything we can do — or if you and Dan and the kids need a warm place for a few hours, you know how to get in tocuh with me. Let me know.
Hey, I’m really sorry to hear it. So crazy infact. I hope you are doing well and I wish I could think of a way I could help. Take care ok?
As one who has lived through many a hurricane, I know what you’re going through =)
How are the kids holding up? Is all of the “camping” fun for them, or are they starting to notice the sudden lack of spongebob in their lives and little things like, oh, say, light?
That’s terrible! We often have power outages here, but they normally don’t last for a WEEK! I hope that things get fixed SOON.
Oh good heavens! What a nightmare! Hoping you are all pwered and better now.
*warm hugs* hope you guys get your power back soon! But I have to say, I really admire your optimistic attitude through this. You ahve kids. Once, this happened to my husband and I before our kid came and we almost crawled out of our skin. (Granted, we didn’t have water at ALL, but still). You’re awesome. 🙂
Yikes! I’m glad to hear you and your family are okay and I pray you all stay that way too!
What do you mean, you’re lucky that a tree didn’t fall through your roof? I’m thinking that a smallish tree that didn’t cause any bodily damage would let the insurance solve your roof problem. We have a 14 year old roof and I’ve been hoping for a hail storm to do it some damage. Of course — there’s always hope that the home inspector will be liable….
Sorry, I should add that I’m glad you’re all okay and I hope your power comes on soon and I definitely hope that your luck takes a turn for the better really soon!
Living down here with hurricanes in the summer is one thing…but gosh, cold & wet at Christmas time is just awful. warm (((HUGS))) & prayers for a good Christmas including electricity! Thank goodness you’re all ok!
Delurking to say that I’m glad you’re all ok! Never realized how invested I’ve become in your blog ’til it up and disappeared. Hoping everything works out all right.
I’m thinking about you, DYM. Stay warm.
I’ve been thinking about you and your fam!
I hope you are safe and warm and REALLY hope that your power comes on soon. Especially for Christmas!
I’m glad you’re okay!
Well that sounds like a lot of fun, if you’re into that sort of thing. We live 15 minutes from downtown Minneapolis and lost power for 4 days straight this year (which gave us a nice $250 credit as per state regulations). Boy was I shocked to get a notice that the power company was actually paying me for once.
Good luck, you’ll make it through, and just think, in 2099, you can say “back at the turn of the century, there was the great christmas storm of 2006”.
Oh, and happy holidays!
Hoping all is better soon!!
Mary, mom to many
Thanks to Mom on a Wire, I was pretty sure this was why I couldn’t pull your site up. So glad to hear all the Darings are ok & that no trees or power lines fell on you.
BTW, loved the “telegram” temporary site that I hit on yesterday. It was *perfect*!
Yeah, our power came back up on Sunday around 10:30am. I screamed I was so excited. My boys thought I was crazy! They were having so much fun “camping” in our 40degree house! I did hate to dump EVERYTHING from the frigde, but hey, after the holidays I will come home to a sparkling clean fridge! Can’t beat that!