Western Washington Disaster

Tom-D

Tom-D

Taxi to Parking
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Tom-D
WE have spent the night and early morning in 75-90 mph winds, most of western Wa. is with out power at this time.. trees are down on most every road and electrical transmition line in Island County.

I'm on my genset, and will shut down as soon as the fridge pumps down..

see ya when the power comes back on..
 
NC19143 said:
see ya when the power comes back on..
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I've been watching that storm, Tom. I have an Aunt up in Seattle who is about 90. She's in a retirement home so she should fare better than most.

My older daughter went to school in Portland but graduated and is now in Chicago. Nevertheless, I watch the weather out there still... mostly out of habit I guess.

Good luck to you and Barb. Hope you fare well! Keep putting that mogas into the genset!

-Skip
 
Stay safe! It was wild in Portland last night. I was lucky, only out of power for seven hours. I know a lot of people are still out.
 
I completed a recon of the yard just before dark, 1 big limb barely missed the solarium but we have no damage. we have food for a week, fuel for the genset, and a travel trailor ready to go at any time. we'll be warm and safe, till we get power back.

no worries

but thanks for your concern.
 
The deck roof over the jacuzzi has blown off piece by piece into the back yard and the yard gate latch has been blown broken. Power's been off twice for about 6 hours each time. Trying to figure out what to do.
 
Tom; and Dave Krall:

Sorry about your travails in "the other corner." Here in Maine we're oppositely amazed by WX. Yesterday was, at 55°, an all-time record(for December 14) for Portland, Maine. I'm 30sm NE of Portland; presently, I can barely see the street in front of my house, less than 75' away, because of intense.......FOG. Last night I was driving home and had to keep changing high/low beams because of intermittent "clouds" hindering vision. Crazy!

One large dealer of snowmobiles/snowblowers is going out of business, tomorrow, after 30 years. Three consecutive years of inadequate snow fall was the killing factor. For all those who think Maine has good -- or snowless -- weather only on July 04 and during the weekend Lobster Festival in August, it's not true. Be well, out there.

HR
 
Dave Krall CFII said:
The deck roof over the jacuzzi has blown off piece by piece into the back yard and the yard gate latch has been blown broken. Power's been off twice for about 6 hours each time. Trying to figure out what to do.
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Wow. :eek: Y'all be careful out there and keep giving us updates as to how you're doing.
 
Diana said:
Wow. :eek: Y'all be careful out there and keep giving us updates as to how you're doing.
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Well now the ENTIRE deck roof is gone into pieces into my backyard and SeaTac TRACON is down too, so I don't have much left here.

So went over to another neighborhood to move my propane grill and spare tanks for cooking into a house's garage with kids and old people in it where power and heat is still out and may be out for 10 days. They have water and so can heat a lot of it on that grill but can't use it upstairs for heat of course. Roads aer all passable so my chainsaw remained idle, which was quite nice. Rode razors with the local kids for a few hours while listening to the car stereo. Left them all for my home before dark because they have only candles and flashlights so it gets pretty scary.

Traffic is smoothe now but last night between 5 & 6 PM more rain came down at a rate in excess of anything I can remember. Got drenched in sideways rain filling up with gasoline then the pump cut me off at $50 and I got drenched again going back to top it off on another card swipe. Took an hour to dry my clean socks over the car defroster blast then got drenched again sprinting between cars to a building. Got dried out at a staff Christmas Party, then drenched through again juggling cars in a driveway for people retreating early.

Got dry, went home in darkness and while re-aligning deck chairs in a more aerodynamic posture to endure the wind, the accumulated rain water poured out from the entire arm concavity perfectly into my shoe. I mean it was soaked through again, just one though that time.
 
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Folks on the west side beaches got beat up pretty bad. lots of tree down because the developers clear and then place houses in the cleared areas and the trees on the edge of the standing timber fall out.

They will clear to with in 50 feet of the power lines, this leaves the trees along the power lines unprotected by the forest, thus we loose power when they fall.

I live with in the city limits, but I still keep my gen set ready, because there is so much development going on we never know where the next clear cut will cause a problem.

This storm was no worse than the one we had in 81, but there were a lot of trees cut since then, and a lot of trees that did not have the protection they had then.

But the lights came back on at 0230 last night, so 24 hours wasn't that bad.. Pacific energy did a great job getting the job done.
 
I just heard that Chinook Pass recorded 130 MPH winds.

It's a good thing hwy. 410 is closed during the winter months..
 
Well, I'm glad you have power and heat back, Tom.

It sounds like maybe we should ask Canada for disaster relief. FEMA is still dealing with NOLA.
 
mikea said:
Well, I'm glad you have power and heat back, Tom.

It sounds like maybe we should ask Canada for disaster relief. FEMA is still dealing with NOLA.
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I elected to live here, So I elect to be ready for our weather. I have a GenTran pannel in the house and a genset ready to go at all times. plus I have a travel trailor that has a full tank of propane, battery charged, So when it gets really bad we hole up in the trailor with a good book.

But just the same the Gov. has declared western wa. a disaster area.
 
Just got an e-mail from my son. After 4 days the power is back on at home. Should be warmed up by the time I get there on Wednesday. :D :D :D
 
Ghery said:
Just got an e-mail from my son. After 4 days the power is back on at home. Should be warmed up by the time I get there on Wednesday. :D :D :D
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There are a few seattle light customers that are still without power, but it is pretty much over, except the clean up.

It was reported that out of 120 major power transmition lines 80 were down.

south sound was hit pretty bad but most are OK now.
 
mikea said:
Well, I'm glad you have power and heat back, Tom.

It sounds like maybe we should ask Canada for disaster relief. FEMA is still dealing with NOLA.
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We ask Canada for help up here in New England all the time.

Hydro Quebec can be seen roaming the streets and highways after a really horrible storm. We've sent plenty of crews over the border and vice-versa.

Tom / Dave - good luck picking up the pieces. Tom, sounds like you are one prepared guy.

Cheers,

-Andrew
part time rock-in-ocean dweller
 
Proof we had a lot of wind to blow these critters this far inland.
 

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NC19143 said:
I elected to live here, So I elect to be ready for our weather. I have a GenTran pannel in the house and a genset ready to go at all times. plus I have a travel trailor that has a full tank of propane, battery charged, So when it gets really bad we hole up in the trailor with a good book.

But just the same the Gov. has declared western wa. a disaster area.
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So, TD, tell me about your gen. Pete's been thinking that we need to get one. BTA, he's been thinking about it since I moved up here..... Like I told him, if the power goes out for an extended time, we have no water. And I'm NOT hand cranking water up from 700 ft down.

Besides, it been down into the single digits here this week. brrrrr.......

And it would be nice if the gov would hop on over to this side of the hill. It got fairly ugly here, so I found out when I went back to work.
 
DeeG said:
So, TD, tell me about your gen. Pete's been thinking that we need to get one. BTA, he's been thinking about it since I moved up here..... Like I told him, if the power goes out for an extended time, we have no water. And I'm NOT hand cranking water up from 700 ft down.

Besides, it been down into the single digits here this week. brrrrr.......

And it would be nice if the gov would hop on over to this side of the hill. It got fairly ugly here, so I found out when I went back to work.
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Get a big one, and a gentran panel, that will disconnect the house from the transmition line so you won't kill a line man trying to fix the power grid.

Have the generator transfere panel installed by a certified electrican, and signed off, because if you don't, and anything happens it's a $50k fine in this state.

When the power goes off flip the main braker off, start the gen set and place the transfere panel switches to generator side and you got power again.

My genset is a 7500w what ever that means, I got it from Belingham hardware 15 years ago.

And convert your house to gas/propane!! and have a gas hot water heater, and kitchen range, and gas furness, and dryer.
 
NC19143 said:
My genset is a 7500w what ever that means, I got it from Belingham hardware 15 years ago.
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That means that it can power 75 100 Watt light bulbs. :p

Actually, that is the amount of electrical power it can put out at full rated load. 62.5 amps of current at 120 Volts (assuming a resistive load, let's not get into complex impedances, etc). Add up the wattage ratings of your key loads (necessary lights, refrigerator, freezer, furnace, etc) and as long as the total comes up less than 7500 you should be OK. Keep in mind that motors need extra current to start, so you may need to keep the total lower to allow for that.
 
Ghery said:
That means that it can power 75 100 Watt light bulbs. :p

Actually, that is the amount of electrical power it can put out at full rated load. 62.5 amps of current at 120 Volts (assuming a resistive load, let's not get into complex impedances, etc). Add up the wattage ratings of your key loads (necessary lights, refrigerator, freezer, furnace, etc) and as long as the total comes up less than 7500 you should be OK. Keep in mind that motors need extra current to start, so you may need to keep the total lower to allow for that.
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My genset will power 6 circuits in the house, just the stuff we need.

furness blower, refer, lights, kitchen/bathroom GFIs,
 
NC19143 said:
My genset will power 6 circuits in the house, just the stuff we need.

furness blower, refer, lights, kitchen/bathroom GFIs,
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You caught the ones I'd worry about. Especially the first two.

I think my wife might be interested in going this route. 10 days without power in the ice storm of 1996. 4 days without power this time (and I wasn't home - I had power in Taipei. :p ). She wasn't happy.
 
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