How did we do? Check in here...

[East Hill]

My power flickered off and on during the 14th, finally went out for good the evening of the 14th, amazingly came back on around 10.00 am on the 15th. All around us people were still without power until this morning. Many traffic signals still out, and exceedingly dangerous driving conditions due to drivers running the intersections.

I took a short run down to Big Soos Creek today, parts of it were flooded due to all the rain. Tree limbs down everywhere on the trail. I eventually came back and sigh, got back on the exercise bike. I'm really beginning to hate that thing.

No damage to the house, not even the creaky old fence blew over. Coming home from work we saw a lot of big trees uprooted, some in the Washington Memorial Park Cemetery, another one which had demolished some poor family's home along South 170th near 40th Avenue South.

We've been asked to check on the relatives of a friend. The relatives live in Gig Harbor. We'll be doing that a bit later, we just have to confirm that the Narrows Bridge is open.

So, I hope everyone will check in here and let us know if they are all right.

East Hill

[HipGnosis6]

Other than a horrible, horrible commute home on Thursday (and a not too great one into work on Friday morning) and a bunch of trash blown in to my stairwell, I had no problems with the storm. The power flickered a little but never went out.

And oh yeah, I work at an insurance company and we had over 600 homeowners claims in one day! That was a little nutty!

[East Hill]

Darn! And that's just from the people who have power. Wait until Monday or Tuesday when the rest of the 700,000 or so people get back their power. I know that our power came back on before the phone did. The Nextel phones at work are still screwed up from the power surges.

I'm glad to see you're ok, though. Get a lot of rest, you'll probably have a hectic week ahead.

East Hill

[Eden]

I think we are sheltered here on the back side of Capitol Hill. It was windy for sure, but nothing got blown over in our immediate vicinity. Plus we live about 1/4 of a block from the power sub station, so unless something happens down there or at our house we don't lose power. I think its only been out two or three times since we've moved here and it stayed on through this whole storm. The hubbby got an extra day off since over where he works in Issaquah the power was out. We went downtown yesterday and everything was in full swing there.
This morning I went out with his team and we did a loop down to Renton, out to May Valley, through Issaquah and back over via I-90. We saw a lot of branches down and a lot of outlying neighborhoods still had their power out. We had to climb over one blowdown over on Mercer Island, but otherwise it was actually a beautiful day to be out on the bike.

[Susan Otcenas]

AT 7am Friday morning, we had a phone call from the alarm company that monitors our TE warehouse. The alarms were going off - were we aware? Um, no. And the person who would normally be here at that hour was scheduled to be in later. We called her and sure enough, she wasn't at the office.

Soooo, we spent a very tense 45 minutes trying to get to the office. Traffic lights were out at major intersections so the roads were a mess. We got to the office and everything was fine. We discovered the alarms had been triggered by the power outtage (well, actually, by the power being restored). We lost power at the office at around 7 pm Thursday and it didn't come back until 7am Friday. Being without power stinks, but from a business standpoint we were very lucky! It didn't affect our ability to ship orders at all. (Big sigh of relief at this time of year!)

We were lucky AGAIN last night. A major power substation had a transformer blow within a few miles of the office. Once again, 50,000 people without power. But we were OK here. Our power flickered at home when the transformer blew, but we didn't lose power there either. Whew!

Hope everyone is safe and warm today!!

Susan

[East Hill]

I went down to my favourite place to ride yesterday, saw people walking along (even though red DANGER tape was strung up blocking the trail). I asked if the trail was all right, and was told that the downed trees had been removed the day before. So, I set off for the slowest ride I've ever made at Big Soos Creek! It was obvious that many trees had come down, the low lying part had again been flooded (although the water had receded). I had to shoulder the bike a couple of times to hoist it over some trees which had not been cleared further along the trail. I encountered some PSE folks who were looking for a downed power line. I let them know there was nothing down behind me. It turned out it was just a few hundred feet up the part of the trail I hadn't ridden yet, and I didn't see it because it was off the trail about 70 feet away :eek: . No sparking though.

I was back at my start point and encountered a woman who I have seen quite frequently. I asked her why she was starting so late, and she told me that it was hard for her to get motivated when it was so cold. She then asked me where I lived...it turned out that she was so cold because she STILL does not have power, and she was only a couple of miles away from me. So even yesterday, Sunday, there are people without power near to me. Yesterday my husband went over to Gig Harbor with a load of firewood for his niece's husband's grandparents. The niece was concerned about them because she had not been able to get hold of them on the phone. It turned out that they were very happy to see my husband with the load of firewood because they were still without power. 85 and 94 years old!

We still haven't heard from a number of people so I hope they are all right. I will have to keep an eye on the names at the bottom of the page to see if everyone appears...

East Hill

[mimitabby]

Sorry, i didn't see this thread. After staying in my cold dark house for all of Friday (day) I left in the afternoon to spend the night at my mother's house.
She lives in Kent and had power and heat, so it was quite nice after a day without. I returned to my house on Saturday morning and the power was already back on! THANK GOODNESS.
Salsabike got her power back on too. and Kitsune left town (she lives in Portland) so I don't know if her home has power either.

[dakay]

I live in Sammamish and our power came back on at 10:00 last night. We bought a generator 13 years ago after the inaugural day storm when our power was out for 3 days. This has been the first time we have really needed it since then but it kept us comfortable. The gas furnace fan and the refrigerator were powered by the generator so we had heat and didn't lose any food.

With all the trees and lines down around here I was surprised our power came back so soon. On Friday it looked like a war zone out there. There were 4 trees down on our street in the quarter mile or so from our house to the corner. We were very lucky. All our trees are standing and the house is in tact.

Kathy

[East Hill]

It sounds as if the Sammamish Plateau got hit really hard. Some heartbreaking photos of homes with trees slicing the house in two. You were very lucky Kathy!

I went for a twenty mile ride today, down off the East Hill to the Kent Valley, over to the Green River Trail as far north as Costco, then back up the hill to home. There were crews working on clearing trees still from the GRT, one huge tree just by the wooden bridge over the river in Tukwila. The man working on that one was glad to hear me tell him that the rest of the downed trees had been pretty much cleared out. I had to shoulder the bike to get past that tree though! I did notice that there were still pockets in the neighbourhood without power.

I'm glad to know that all of us seem to have made it through without damage.

East Hill

[Susan126]

Lost power last Thursday night with the big storm and we finally got our power back today, Monday, December 18th at 4:19 PM! Usually we get power back the same day not this time and here's why, not two blocks from my house trees were down and they took out four poles! They didn't even get the trees cleared away until yesterday afternoon. Today the utility trucks and power company finally could do their work once the trees and debris were gone. What a long long long four days it has been! My son flew in on Saturday. He's home from college for his xmas break. What a welcome home! But with the power back tonight I am feeling much better. I do have a ton of laundry to do but you know I'm happy about doing it! No biking this past weekend but I'll make up for it this up coming weekend. Probably mountain biking at Lake Sawyer near Black Diamond. The roads are full of debris so it may be a while before I ride the road bike. I'm glad everyone is ok and made it out of the storm safely.

[East Hill]

Susan126, are you in Federal Way? I know some of my co-workers who live in FW finally got their power back yesterday also.

Just remember everyone, could be another little storm on the way! Oh joy.

East Hill

Are we missing anyone who normally visits every couple of days?

[LaBiker]

My power went out Thursday night around 9:30 and came back on this morning -- Tuesday -- at 2:45am. I have a generator, which typically will run some lights, the freezer, frig and furnace, but the thermostat on my furnace went out so I've had no heat.

It was 36 degrees in the house this morning when I turned on a portable heater and the oven.

I was planning on riding my bike to get my car, which I had to leave when the power repair crews re-closed my main road. However, I chose to walk instead, which turned out to be a very smart choice. The road is open, but still a mess with debris and the walking trail/riding trail is non-passable in a few areas. Motorists are definitely not looking for bicycle traffic!

I live in north Bellevue, by Bridle Trails State Park. I've spent well over 20 hours hauling downed limbs, but the house, barn, and fence are all intact. I think I'm VERY fortunate!

LaBiker

[Susan126]

Susan126, are you in Federal Way? I know some of my co-workers who live in FW finally got their power back yesterday also.

Just remember everyone, could be another little storm on the way! Oh joy.

East Hill

Are we missing anyone who normally visits every couple of days?

No I live in Bonney Lake. Between Sumner and Buckley/Enumclaw.

No not another storm! So far this has been quite the winter. Actually the first day of winter is the 21st! I hope January and February are milder than November and December have been! I keep dreaming about those warm sunny days riding my bike! sigh . . . looking forward to spring and summer 2007!

Stay warm and dry everyone! :) Sue

[East Hill]

LaBiker, it sounds as if you and Susan126 were both very lucky not to have sustained any injuries or damage. Well, other than having to spend 20 hours moving downed trees. I have noticed that there are a lot of ads now on Craigslist for free wood!

Susan126, yes, now I remember the nice photo of the snow from a few weeks ago! Speaking of which, no we really don't need any more weather, do we :eek: . My work mates tell me that the SEA Airmail Center lost power for five hours on Saturday night for Sunday morning. That was after the storm was over! We had power at the AMC all through the windstorm because the building has a backup generator, so I don't know why the power went out. I do know that we worked extra hard this past evening to get everyone's packages to them, though :D . Our Priority Mail Annex, over by Briscoe Park off the GRT, is still without power, last I knew. It was being powered yesterday by one of those huge rent-a-CAT generators. But darn it, we're getting those cards/letters/packages to all of you!

At any rate, we still haven't heard of anyone of the TE ladies taking any damage, so that's good. Of course, there could still be someone out there without power. I don't think Mercer Island is back up even now. Anyone else?

East Hill

[freshsushi]

I live on East Hill too!

If any one rides on the Green River Trail, they did a pretty good job clearing it, it was quite rideable up to Boeing-Kent this morning. I saw piles of branches that people have cleared off the path.

My local Safeway didn't have power as of yesterday - no ice cream for me :( However, my neighborhood was fine, holiday lights ablaze!

[East Hill]

Freshsushi, do you ever ride the Big Soos Creek Trail? I was on the GRT yesterday, and nearly froze my toes off. But a magnificent job has been done getting the trees removed. I went from Briscoe Park to Costco without problem. I think I will try the full loop starting in Auburn all the way to the Seattle Processing and Distribution Center (that's the end of the Interurban) and back to Auburn then up the Hill on Saturday. I will need to burn off calories. That ride should help.

East Hill

[lauraelmore1033]

Hey, where did this thread come from? I've only just noticed it today. We live up in Everett (mere yards away from a substation). We experienced only momentary flickers in the power, but we did have the top of a huge tree fall down, ripping the gutters off the garage and crushing an old junker my husband was hiding back there. I guess we were mighty lucky that it didn't fall through the garage roof! My favorite trail was also pretty cluttered with chunky debris which was unsettling to ride through, but was for the most part, cleared of fallen trees or branches by the time I got out to ride again.

[mimitabby]

Yeah, you have to watch the PNW thread from time to time! glad you're okay.

[salsabike]

We lost power Thursday night at around 11 pm, and got it back Friday night at 8:30-ish (but 10 blocks away, the power was still out on Sunday).

It was pitch black in my basement, where we're currently living as the house is under construction, and I spent most of my time in bed under three quilts with my two elderly cats (Mr. Salsa was away for work stuff). The gusts that shook the house were a little scary, and hearing the branches crack and fling themselves against the house, ditto (we have no insulation right now so you can hear everything outside). But we had only a dent in one gutter, no other damage. Looking forward to not repeating the experience for a while.

Glad you all are OK. Sounds like the East Side got really hammered.