Seattle Storm front00:21 Dec 20 2006
Times Read: 1,130
From a good friend's email updates... stories from the storm...
His Version: The windstorm started brewing up around 6pm on Thursday. Our power went out at 7pm, so we tucked ourselves into bed, expecting that the power would be restored early the next morning.
We were awakened by a loud crash/bang/thump at 11pm - the noise sounded like it came from outside the bathroom. I got out of bed and tried to open the bathroom door, which was thoroughly stuck. I finally managed to pry it open to discover that the object blocking the door was the bathroom ceiling. A tree had smashed the skylight ... and the wall ... and the window. I put on my boots, crunched my way across the kitchen floor (tree had smashed the kitchen skylight) into the entryway to discover that the tree had smashed the skylight and left a 3' diameter hole in the roof – it was raining into the entryway.
I went outside and saw that two trees had hit the house - the shorter of the two had fallen into the taller of the two, done a piledriver into the bathroom, then whipped the taller tree the length of the house across the roof, sheared off a 20' piece at the end which had bounced off the end of the roof (smashing the skylight and putting a hole in the roof above the entryway.)
I went downstairs and called our insurance company and, after 20 minutes on hold, was informed that I was near the front of the line for assessment and emergency repairs. After that, we went back to bed and nervously listened to the trees creaking around the house.
Friday morning, we woke up around 7am and it was 40 degrees (8C) in the bedroom. I put on warm clothing and wandered outside with the digital camera, snapping photos of the devastation. We had a lot of trees down on the property (we live on 6 acres (2 hectares) just outside Redmond, Washington.
The tree struck the house so hard that items that we had hanging in the rafters in the garage were knocked off the hooks and fell down onto the garage floor. There was also a large hole in the garage door - oddly, it had been smashed outward from the garage, not inward, as a hunk of tree would have done. I looked around, but I couldn't find the cause for the hole in the garage door.
After feeding the animals, we drove up to my office at Microsoft to check in with my team - I had cleaned up all my work items for the Beta release and I wanted to make certain that I didn't have any last minute work items. We arrived to discover that the power was out at Microsoft. That was my indicator that the power outage was very serious. I checked in with my boss and he gave me the rest of the day off - no power meant no computers and no work to be done.
We also discovered that we had no cellphone service at our house – our area's cell tower didn't have power. Our landline did work and, as we were cleaning the debris from the front yard, it started ringing - estimators and contractors calling to schedule appointments.
The "tree guys" arrived with a crane around 11am and lifted the trees off the roof.
As they started working, one of my neighbors came over to check on us. I discovered that he was running low on firewood, so I loaded up a wagonload of 2+ year old seasoned firewood wood and thanked him for the offer of chainsaw help.
Meanwhile, the tree guys used the crane and chainsaws to cut up the trees on the roof and they stacked them neatly in the driveway. I started cutting them into rounds with the chainsaw and soon the "plywood and tarp" guys arrived around 2pm and started covering the holes in the roof with plywood and then tarping over the plywood.
As they were finishing, the first estimator showed up with a digital camera and clipboard and I started giving him a tour of the damage. By the time he finished, it was getting dark.
I called our friends Andrea and Jerry and they invited us over to their house for hot showers. We drove through Redmond and it was pitch black - no power, no lights, at all. Microsoft's power hadn't been restored either - I concluded that if Microsoft was out of power all day, it must be really bad. We got hot showers and then went out to dinner at Ruth's Chris Steak House - it was the 5th anniversary of our first date. Hobbit opined that I did an excellent job of ensuring that it was a memorable event.
Saturday morning, I got up around 7:30 and it was 40 degrees in the bedroom again. I put on the warm (now muddy and dirty) clothes I'd been wearing the previous day and drove into Redmond to see how much progress the Puget Power teams had made in restoring electricity. Power had been restored to the edge of town, so I stopped at the first espresso stand I could find, got a large Eggnog latte, and sipped it and watched the block-long line of cars waiting at the gas station.
I drove home and informed Hobbit that Redmond had power and we should have power shortly. She replied, "mmmmffff" from under a pile of blankets. Translation: I'm getting out of bed when the lights and heat come on.
I spent Saturday cutting logs into rounds and doing (still more) yard cleanup. That afternoon, we visited the neighbors behind the house to let them know that they might have sheep, goats, alpaca and llama in their yard because of the trees down across the fence.
They asked, "Do you have a huge black and yellow dog? We found him huddled under our pickup Friday morning and after we gave him some food, he ran back over to your house."
This explained the hole in the garage door - our dog Titus will occasionally pry up the garage door, slither underneath and sleep in the garage. When the tree hit the house and knocked all the stuff off the ceiling of the garage, Titus was startled awake and smashed his way through the garage door in his haste to get out.
The insurance adjuster arrived on Saturday afternoon and we did a walkthrough. The tree hit the roof so hard that our bedroom wall (across the house from the tree strike) was bulged outward about 3 inches.
Saturday evening, we went to the gym and I went directly into the steam room where I spent 20 minutes rewarming myself, then a hot shower and off to dinner in Seattle. We returned home to discover that Puget Power had still not reconnected our power, so we spent another another 40 degree night ...
Sunday morning, I surveyed the trees hanging over the driveway and concluded that there were 4 trees that had been damaged and were poised to drop onto the area where we park our cars. A maple had partially sheared off a 20' hunk of branch which was hung between it and a fir tree – the logging term for that being, "widowmaker." Jerry came over and provided backup (standing with his thumb poised on the cellphone 911-autodial feature) while I cut down trees with my chainsaw.
We had a few humorous incidents - the chainsaw ran out of gas as I was ¾ of the way through a tree. I extricated the saw and, realizing that we were out of fuel, yelled across the fence to Jerry, "Jerry, can you hand me that double-bitted axe so I can finish cutting down this tree?"
Jerry replied, "Why don't I just hand you the gas can?" He picked up the gas can, realized it was empty, and without a word, picked up the axe and handed it over the fence. It took less time to chop through the remaining tree than it would have to refill the chain saw.
I got more 2 cycle mix for the saw and we tackled the widowmaker. I did everything by the book - relieving cut 1/3 of the way through the trunk perpendicular to the fall line, then the primary cut above the relieving cut on the opposite side of the tree ...
The tree creaked, swayed and then just sat there.
A combination of the angle of the tree, the branch hung in the fir tree and the balance of the tree kept it balanced on the stump ... at least, until the next time the wind blew, and then its fall path would be completely random. We contemplated a number of solutions and finally arrived at using my pickup truck and a rope to pull the tree down.
I started out by putting tension on the rope and slowly letting out the clutch, to no effect. After several tries, I backed up and got a running start. Trope stretched like a giant rubber band and then something gave - I watched as the tree swayed and appeared to drop toward the truck.
It resembled a Northwest version of the Dukes of Hazzard as I sped down the gravel driveway with the tree in hot pursuit. Luckily the truck moved fast and the tree fell to the left and smashed a blackberry bramble flat (instead of the truck.)
End result - we've got 6 trees down near the house and the beginnings of a HUGE pile of firewood. The burn pile for our spring goat shearing party is going to be gigantic and it looks like we will be remodeling the bathroom.
Her Version: Thursday night it was raining in my living room. We were out of power from Thursday until Sunday. The house was a disaster with broken glass and tree debris littered all over the floor. With the power out all I could do was sweep and pick up. It was also freezing in our house. When the power finally came back on Sunday morning at 11, I was so happy I cried.
Pictures of their home:
To give an idea as to the size of the tree…
Side view…
Here are pictures of my other friend’s new car… *sigh* what a Christmas break…
A view from the backyard…
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