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[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 . 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.