NW (US) Catters OK?

Subject: RE: NW (US) Catters OK?
From: Ebbie
Date: 18 Dec 06 - 02:54 AM

I didn't see it, John. *G*

Well, the storm has hit us now. At least I assume it's the same one working its way up north. Often happens.

It's very windy tonight and I've got a flashlight and the battery-driven radio ready. Although if the power went off I'd just go to bed. Things would probably be normal by morning- Juneau has its own hydropower grid.

My cat and dog are wide-eyed.

Southeast Alaska gets a lot of wind. Most of the time not much damage occurs but I remember one storm a few years ago that tore roofs off a lot of buildings around here. Mostly the new metal roofs.

Ebbie

Subject: RE: NW (US) Catters OK?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 07:30 PM

Friends in the area (a bit north of Seattle) note that storms, rougher than usual, have been a weekly happening for the past several weeks. Our Shaman buddy bought an aux generator a little over three weeks ago and says he's had to use it for a couple of days about once a week every week since. Port Angeles vicinity, out in the country.

I'm suspecting that the storms in the Seattle area - or somewhere else with similar events - are responsible for my past 8.9 hour ordeal. Our dialup connection started giving us an error message in lieu of a connection. Connect and start to negotiate, and then the site wouldn't come back to finish turning on.

Approximagely 9 attempts to contact the MSN support line each resulted in an 00:02:37 dance with the automated-sythetic-pretty-lady-voice to get to "I'll transfer you to someone who can help you" - followed by a click and a disconnect. (At least it was synthetic English.) Never did get through. Wading through my list of 11 alternate local dial-up numbers I finally found ONE that got me (I think) hooked up. Three others would hook up, but drop the connection immediately.

(If you don't see this post you'll know I was wrong.)

John

Subject: RE: NW (US) Catters OK?
From: Stewart
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 07:11 PM

Much of Bellevue (east side of Seattle) is still without power today, Sunday, after the storm on Thursday night. Our favorite folk-music public radio station, KBCS, at Bellevue Community College has been doing a fantastic job keeping the music on the airwaves by operating a generator to keep the transmitter powered, while most of the lights are out and there is no heat. "Steaming is not working due to power outage! During the windstorm on Thursday night we lost power and are currently broadcasting with the help of a generator. Our dedicated volunteers are bringing you the music and news with just a few lights in the air-room, but no heat. We hope the station along with many people in the region will get the power restored soon."
But the music goes on!
Here's hoping!

Cheers, S. in Seattle (where things seem quite normal in spite of the fact that many people outside of Seattle are still in the dark and cold)

Subject: RE: NW (US) Catters OK?
From: bobad
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 04:57 PM

Metchosin is very likely without electricity as the area where she lives was hit pretty hard.


Wind hits areas west of Victoria the hardest

Rob Shaw, CanWest News Service
Published: Saturday, December 16, 2006

GREATER VICTORIA I The most powerful windstorm of the year clobbered Greater Victoria's rural western communities Friday, but largely spared its core cities.

Western municipalities from Langford to Sooke were particularly hard hit, as fallen trees downed power lines, blocked roads, crushed cars and damaged houses.

Winds gusted to more than 90 km/h and left 25,000 homes without power.

However, Victoria, Saanich and Oak Bay escaped with only relatively minor damage.

Metchosin was virtually impassable Friday morning, with "significant damage" on rural roads, said Mayor John Ranns.

"I've lived here all my life and I've never seen anything so destructive," he said. "It was astonishing how bad it was."

Metchosin's neighbour, Colwood, saw equally harsh conditions.

"In Colwood it was very severe," city chief administrator Chris Pease said late Friday afternoon. "I think the main eye of the wind must have come this way."

There were about 50 sections of power line down, Pease said. Around 16 roads were closed and nine houses were damaged by fallen trees, he said.

While other Island communities were pummeled by the storm, preparation and a little concrete shelter paid off for Victoria city crews Friday, said Hector Furtado, manager of streets division.

The city had sent out advisories to nail down everything that could possibly move.
© The Vancouver Sun 2006

Subject: RE: NW (US) Catters OK?
From: Sorcha
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 04:47 PM

Deckman? Don Firth? Metoschin?

Subject: RE: NW (US) Catters OK?
From: Alice
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 12:34 PM

On Friday I drove through high winds and two parts of the blizzard on my way from eastern Montana back home to Bozeman in the west. A large semi truck was blown over on its side from the 80-100 mile/hr wind. I passed the wrecking crew that had just arrived to pull the semi back up onto its wheels. The wind was sliding my car sideways at times. Scary. Most of the danger was from the wind until I got to the Bozeman pass where snow was thick and the ice started. Friday night we lost a young man to a car accident who was a semester short of graduating. He came to Montana State University from Senegal as a basketball player and loved and was loved by the Bozeman community. The weather was bad where he and his brother were driving, but they say it was inattention, not road conditions, nor drink nor drugs that made his brother vere off the road. They were on their way to a Christmas party at a ranch. Tragic.Click here

Subject: RE: NW (US) Catters OK?
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 11:14 AM

Our wires are buried and I agree with Skarpi -- and the place looks better without all those wires in the sky. It's also safer.

Nothing much happened here -- about 20 mph wind, and today it was 8.3F when I got up. Not even much snow, but we did set a new record for rain.

(Why does the bottom of this offer clicks to "Idaho Floods" (thanks, but no thanks, I live at about 5,000 feet with no nearby creeks, brooks, rivulets, rivers, or streams) and "Surplus Military Tents"?)

Subject: RE: NW (US) Catters OK?
From: skarpi
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 08:09 AM

Too expensive ?? what does it cost to have 1,5 million along with
the firms out of Electric ?? dig it under ground and it will pay off
very soon .

:>)

All the best Skarpi ICeland.

Subject: RE: NW (US) Catters OK?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 05:17 AM

Well done Iceland, we have thousands and thousands of pylons spoiling the landscape in Scotland. "Too expensive to put them underground", is the excuse we get.
Glad you guys over there are OK, we sure are getting freakish weather conditions on a more regular basis these days!
Giok

Subject: RE: NW (US) Catters OK?
From: Amergin
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 12:47 AM

The power at work went out for a few minutes....a few traffic lights were out....the drive home that night was fun....fighting the wind gusts....other than the road home being blocked...it was uneventful.

Subject: RE: NW (US) Catters OK?
From: harpmolly
Date: 16 Dec 06 - 07:49 PM

Stewart, glad to hear you're all right!

Miraculously, our house never lost power, but in my attic bedroom I didn't get much sleep. I started out thinking, "Wheee, this is kind of fun...curled up with my kitty and my cup of tea...". Not too much later, the cat was freaking out and I had pretty much pulled the blankets right over my head. The wind whipping around the eaves and the fig tree outside banging against the house (it's a miracle the windows weren't broken!) were, not to put too fine a point on it, scary as hell. And I usually love storms!

Anyway, no serious damage done on my end, but just a few blocks north of us was a big power outage. We definitely got off lucky.

Molly

Subject: RE: NW (US) Catters OK?
From: skarpi
Date: 16 Dec 06 - 07:44 PM

Why dont they but the electrical wires underground there ???

we do that , and hardly ever do we have this proplem .

learn from the Icelanders hehehehe


All the best from the tropical Island -Iceland in the North Atlantic
ocean .Skarpi

Subject: RE: NW (US) Catters OK?
From: Stewart
Date: 16 Dec 06 - 07:34 PM

I'm alive and well in Seattle. Thursday night was quite exciting - wind gusts to almost 70 mph. Didn't sleep much as the noise and worry about what might be blowing away kept us awake. Lights flickering on an off, but no long outages. But by next morning the wind had died down and nothing damaged at least in our neighborhood of NW Seattle. Other parts of the city power was out, and in a few parts it still is out. Have to be careful at intersections - a few still without lights. It's much worse on the east side, Bellevue, etc., and outside of Seattle with larger areas without power. This was said to be the worst wind storm in over 20 years here. But for the next week, at least, we are promised just boring weather, although a bit colder than normal.

Cheers, S. in Seattle

Subject: RE: NW (US) Catters OK?
From: Bee
Date: 16 Dec 06 - 03:43 PM

I am on the East Coast, Canada, but British Columbia has been in the news for several days now, hit by one windstorm (+ rain and/or snow)after another. Vancouver and Vancouver Island are hard hit, many thousands without power, and could be days before it's restored. I sympathise deeply: no power for days on end sucks, unless you're well set up for it.

Subject: NW (US) Catters OK?
From: Sorcha
Date: 16 Dec 06 - 03:34 PM

We have quite a few members in the US Northwest which has been hard hit by a storm. 100 MPH winds, snow, etc. 1.5 million are without power. Has anyone heard from our friends up there? Is the storm slopping over into SW Canada also?