Wind Storm 2015.

[Greg G.]

Here's a few pics of our place and around the neighborhood.  Wish I had a camera with me when I was driving the bus through that storm.  Dark traffic lights, trees and branches and wind and rain.  Power was out for about 26 hours at our place.  Fortunately no trees fell on our house, but I have my work cut out for me raking up branches.  Unfortunately a neighbor's van was demolished.

[Phonesrfun]

Wow, a little breezy here across state, but no storm here.  Yours looks like it was pretty brutal!

[OldPete]

You must be here near Admiralty Inlet. I'm right across the bay from Port Townsend, in Nordland on
Marrowstone Island. Southern end of the island, on Oak Bay, a friends anerometer was recording
many gusts to 45-50 mph Saturday then about 1330 hrs. we were hit with one at least 60. We had just
about finished a bow shelter boat shop a week before. Blew that building right darn flat, ripping it
off the foundation piers and about 5 feet north. We are about the middle of the island. Lost power for
4 1/2 hours here, many more without power much longer. Trees down everywhere.

Last time it blew this hard was almost 30 years ago when a norther (this one was from the south)
blew the whole darn marina up on the beach.

No reports of anyone over here hurt but I understand that two were killed over in Lynnwood.

Wow. But the 'ol 302 kept the phone connection going!!

Pete

[Greg G.]

You must be here near Admiralty Inlet.

Yes, Shoreline area.

Wow. But the 'ol 302 kept the phone connection going!!

Pete

Actually it was our landline that saved our phone service.  There's a 202, 500, and a modern phone plugged in.  I was at work when the power went out, and I could tell it was out because when I called home, the modern phone's answering feature wouldn't kick in because it needs the houses electricity to work.  Last year I remember Anita and I went out to eat when the power went out and called home now and then.  If it answered, then we knew the power was back on.

I've educated Anita about the old Bell System and the advantage of landlines.  We were talking about how glad we were we could still have phone service with the power being down, but Anita wondered how much longer landlines will be around. 

[AE_Collector]

A wild weekend up here in Vancouver Canada as well. We are about 150 miles north of Seattle and still have thousands of homes without power. There were hundreds of thousands of homes without power by Saturday night.

Meanwhile, after incredible summer weather and  almost no precipitation since early June, we had 16 people coming to our cabin at Pt Roberts Washington on Saturday for my wifes mothers 75th birthday party. Needless to say people were late as all the traffic lights that were out and trees across roads and once they were here it was rain and wind. The sun did appear on a few occasions though and it was a memorable day.

The unbelievable part is that our power didn't go out. Pt Roberts gets its power directly from Vancouver Canada as point Roberts is surrounded by the Pacific Ocean on three sides and attached to Canada on the fourth (north) side. The power is always going out here because of the route the power lines take getting here and all the trees on the point but we had an outage of 1 second on Saturday and that was it. Amazing!

Terry

[NorthernElectric]

I was at work when the power went out, and I could tell it was out because when I called home, the modern phone's answering feature wouldn't kick in because it needs the houses electricity to work.

I use that same technique to check on my power at home during winter storms.  I have electric heat so an extended blackout could mean frozen pipes.  Also in the winter it will be dark by the time I get home, and it's easier to get the kerosene lamps and stove fired up if I have daylight to work with.  So I phone home from work during storms to see if the power's out and if it doesn't come back on my mid-afternoon I will leave early.