Electricity decided to go out tonight. A strong storm is blowing across the Pac. NW tonight and into tomorrow. Apparently some power lines didn't like the high winds and rain this evening.

This was a reminder for me to check my gear. All of a sudden I was reaching for flashlights that had been moved around, etc.

Amazing how many drivers think that when the traffic lights go out it just means don't stop and drive faster... <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

The current coronal mass ejection from the solar storm may have been a contributing factor as well, although I haven't heard of any other power outages yet.

• http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2006/s2758.htm
• http://www.sec.noaa.gov/advisories/bulletins.html

Here in the Seattle area it is a mess. Ironically, I'm one of the lucky ones and didn't even lose power. We lost Internet/Cable until today. Reports say power may be out for some for about three days, or in some cases, up to a week.

I don't have time to write more right now, but will try to later.

Here are some links:

nwcn.com photos
Storm lashes region, claims three lives
In the wake of the storm | Dispatches from around the region (link to pics)

It's been three days, and it's still a mess. I live south of Olympia (the capital), and there is more power still off than on. I was one of the lucky ones, and didn't lose it for long, just have slower dialup. Driving home from work last night, the areas with and without power were oddly patchwork. The local grocery store is still running on a generator, but the store across the street and all the ones I could see down that way have power.

There are three restauants in town, and all are packed, even after usual closing time. Two have power and one is working on generators & propane. The mobile home park across the street is still dark. I can hear a couple of generators.

Trees and poles and power lines are down like tinker toys and spaghetti all along the roads. All that has been done is to drag them off the pavement.

Estimates of repair from the power company range from one to three weeks.

The temps have dropped to the twenties at night. Many, many people here have pellet stoves, with electric fans. The people who have wood stove heat have people sleeping on their floors and glad to be there.

There is not a single generator for sale in the state of WA. Most of the stores have been stripped of Coleman fuel, camping stoves, flashlights, etc. Since shipping is not a problem, most of the stores still have some bottled water, but there are large bare spaces on the shelves.

I'm afraid that we are going to have reports of people starting fires with candles, and asphixiations with the (improper) indoor use of propane and kerosene. There has already been one instance of an idiot trying to start a fire in his fireplace with gasoline. He and the dog got out, but the four cats died.

Sue

Thursday night, I figured we'd lose power so shut off the computers and TV and left them off all evening/night. Lights flickered here and there until we went to bed. My wife fills up the car with gas just in case. I also have some gas stored in the garage, but it's for 'just in case'.

Friday morning we awoke and to our surprise we still had power. My wife's mother, who lives close to downtown Mill Creek, has no power.

From the sounds of it, pretty much all of Mill Creek is dark.

We only had one car since we just took my wife's Jeep to the dealer. As a result, I took her to work. She manages an outpatient medical clinic in Woodinville. We knew the power was out but the medical director wanted to stay open since in family medicine, a lot of people are coming in for colds and that kind of thing and can still be helped. And people don't suddenly feel better just because the power is out.

We live in a northern part of Seattle near where I5 and I405 meet. Leaving our immediate neighborhood, we saw a fair mixture of people with and without power. Mostly without. Very shortly on our way to Woodinville, basically everyone was without power.

We encountered a number of fallen trees, one mostly across one of the few routes from where we live to her work (there are not that many through roads). There was a small hole and I drove under. My wife later indicated it was being help up only by power lines which I didn't see (yes, there is a lessen there).

We get to her clinic and they get going with some flashlights and such. Everyone there reports their power is out.

I head for downtown Seattle which is where I work. In order to get downtown, I have to cross the lake that sits in the middle of greater Seattle.

Going at first was slow, but fairly uneventful. Stoplights were out causing traffic to run slowly, but that was about it.

I try to get on the 520 floating bridge which is one of the two major bridges that cross the lake. Going is very slow and finally I see why. We are being diverted off the highway. I circle down to the next onramp, and it is blocked. Obviously the 520 bridge is closed.

About this time, it occurs to me to turn on the radio! Duh! Turns out the 520 bridge was closed during the night. I guess they opened it to prevent it from getting overloaded and some bolts sheared off. They indicate this is a 'feature', but they can't open it until they get it fixed.

Now I'm in heavy residential areas in Bellevue. It's a mess. Lots of trees down and I have to drive under some. I see a guy standing out in his yard with a big tree smashed through his house. Talk about a bad way to start a day.

Right now I'm areas I'm not familiar with. My car has a navigation system and it's helping a lot.

I slowly weave my way into downtown Bellevue. Some shop owners are at their business, all dark. Not too much damage downtown Bellevue, some signs blown apart, awnings in tatters, but not too serious.

Still in downtown, I get near the I405 freeway and there are a few blocks of downtown Bellevue with power. It's the first place I've seen the lights on for quite a while.

I get on the I405 freeway, and it's barely moving. With the 520 bridge out, the I90 bridge is VERY backed up.

In my trip, it is clear that basically the whole eastside has no power.

I get downtown Seattle (I90 takes you right into the city core), lights are on mostly. Things seem pretty normal. Most of my co-workers don't have power at home tho. It appears that near downtown, things are a mix of power and no power. As you get farther away, mostly no power.

I make sure to get extra cash at lunch. The ATM is out of money and I have to go inside the bank to get money.

Sometime in the afternoon, I get ahold of the car dealership. They just got their power back. They are in Bellevue (fairly close to downtown). They have no staff so no-go on the Jeep.

My wife indicates they will close the clinic at 5 which is a bit early. I try to leave work by 3 to make sure I make it on time, but don't actually leave until about 3:30.

They announced they were going to open the 520 bridge at noon, but I stick with I90 just in case. Later I find they didn't open it on time, but am not sure when they did.

After my trip in the morning, I figure I'll stick to the freeways. The trip is amazing quick. People probably have all gone home by now.

After picking up my wife, we again stick to the major freeways and things go pretty well other than in one place. My wife's mother indicates she now has power.

Saturday, the clinic was to be open again, but have gone through most of their batteries and their lighting situation is only so-so. I rummaged through my box and found five headlamps and outfitted them with new batteries from my stock.

Most of the lights they have at the clinic either take the 6V lantern batteries or D cells.

We figured we'd check some stores and nab some more batteries for her clinic and I told her we should grab some CF lanterns (or LED lanterns) if we see them.

The first place we stop is a Lowes near our house. It didn't have power the day before, but had power now and was open. I suspected we were not going to find any batteries, but I was supprised while some of the shelves were empty, there were some D cells left. And we spotted three CF lanterns!

We nabbed maybe five 8 packs of D cells and grabbed the last of the lanterns. Somewhat supprised by the lack of difficulty finding batteries, we make a mistake: We should have gotten more D cells.

We go to get coffee to take to the staff and find that the couple of coffee places that are open are SWAMPED. Obviously a lot of people without power would like some hot coffee and their coffee makers aren't working. This, combined with lots of coffee places without power make the ones that are open pretty busy. But everyone is friendly, it's almost like a social gathering. The baristas are working like mad. I make sure to leave a good tip.

We see the same deal for gas stations. Most dark, and the ones that are open have a line out into the street. I predict they will run out of gas soon.

We get to the clinic and as predicted, the CF lanterns much improve the situation, as do the headlamps. But we find that the cheezy D cell based flashlights have eaten up their supply of batteries. And the CF laterns gobble up 8 in a setting. While they do last quite a while, that means there is only one 8 pack for their other lights.

So we head out to try to find more batteries. Going was very slow. Traffic is a snarl. Basically, everyone is now out and about hunting for things they need.

Lowes is a long ways away. We go to Home Depot. No D cells, no 6V lanterns. Staples (and office store). They laugh! Another hardware store. People are staring at the shelves where the battereries were. I say we should target stores that were closed yesterday. We go to Target, no dice. Maybe stores that you don't associate with hardware? Linens-N-Things.. No go. Maybe some more - I don't remember.

No D cells or 6V lantern batteries to be had anywhere. We hear reports that also no gas, no propane, no generators either.

We give up. Interestingly, almost all of the stores we went to had AA and AAA cells still. I find it even more interesting because I personally don't like D cells that much due to their horrible discharge curve.

I figure if they they get stuck I'll tap my personal stock of D cells. I actually don't use D cells in my kits, but stock some anyway.

We go home, near us, things are peppered with some on, some off. Gas stations are still backed up, resturaunts.

I call the Jeep dealer. Even tho they have power, things are in disarray and they won't get the Jeep done until Monday. Oh well.

I'm working today (from home) so I haven't ventured out, but I suspect things are starting to calm down somewhat, at least near here.

However, I did talk to one of my co-workers who lives in Edmonds which is a community north of Seattle. She still doesn't have power and took her infant to a hotel to stay warm.

-john

Personal mistakes to learn from:

- Look before you leap! Carefully asses obstacles before you attempt to navigate them. Doh!
- Turn on the radio. Duh!

Observations:

- Things can get bad in a hurry. It just takes a little pressure of something not being available as it is use to: gas, food, power, etc. to have a big effect. And this was fairly minor IMO.
- Navigation is importaint. In a disaster, you probably will have to modify your route.

Personal improvements

- It occured to me when driving that with a chainsaw and the Jeep, I could have cleared most of the problems we encountered. Am going to bump a good chainsaw and winch (griphoist) higher on the to-buy list. Already have chains, straps and tow hooks.
- Need to take a look at lengthening my preparedness. While a week would be no sweat, this incident has made me think that it wouldn't take much for you to need longer.

Burning questions:

- How do you know downed wires are safe?

Timing is everything. It would have to be at a time when the utilities are under greatest need.

I remember in the 70's when we had a foot or more of snow fall and lost power for a few days in Puyallup. We huddled around the fireplace trying to stay warm (a fireplace is a poor heating idea). Next year we had a woodstove and I think dad learned his lesson.

I see today where a hundred or so people are being treated for Carbon Monoxide poisoning. It figures. Some people just have to learn the hard way.

What really chaps my hide is that the wicked witch went and declared a general state emergency (having taken her cue from New Orleans, no doubt), and can now fleece the gen pub for the lack of preparation of many, many idiots who failed once again to prepare for such events, despite the obvious risk. Good to see how my hard earned tax dollars are being wasted again on fools. But no, I'm not bitter.....

Susan says:


Yep.

Reference



-john

I don't have tv, so I don't know too much of what's going on. I can't find any newspapers -- could be they don't have the power to print them.

I called a few places about 20 mi north to see if they were open, and did some shopping for minor food items and a Christmas gift for my sister. Everything in that area was operating normally. I headed home in advanced dusk. It was kind of shocking that there were MILES of homes without power. A storage place that has a well-fenced lot for boats & RVs has lost most of it's RVs. The owners have either taken them home and are living in them, or loaning them out. They are parked right in front of their front doors. A few places obviously had generators, maybe four. More had a single source of light showing, like a lantern in a main room. Most had nothing.

Most of the smaller gas stations are out of gas.

An amusing note in the midst of all these problems:
I have a friend (in her 60s) who lives alone on a mini-farm. I stopped in to see if she was okay or needed anything. She came out to meet me, saying everything was fine. She hadn't lost power, no trees had fallen on her home or barn or animal shelters, her woodshed was full, she had three stock tanks filled with water and covered, her small barn was stocked with animal feed, her pantry was full, the gas tank in the truck was full, etc.

She was kind of grumbling <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" /> that she was a bit disappointed that things hadn't been worse, to make her feel that all her preparations were for nothing.

But I reassured her that winter doesn't start for another four days. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Sue

Geez. This report puts the carbon monoxide posionings at around 100.

-john