The Hurricane Unknown to the World, Day 1

Sunday, December 1, 2007

8:00am: Today started normal with a little anxiety in the air knowing this is the day the large two-day, high-wind, two piggy-back storms are forecast to hit. I'm a little skeptical about the weather being as bad as NOAA forecasts (40-60mph sustained winds and 80-100mph gusts)...especially since its fairly calm as I go to my Sunday morning meetings. Even though I'm skeptical, we are pretty-well prepared: almost inevitably the power goes out in these storms for a few hours.

11:15am: At the close of Sacrament meeting our Bishop surprised me by announcing that the next 2 hours of church were cancelled so we can go home and prepare for the storm. The kids and I went to get the van out of the lower parking lot and I was really surprised how much the wind was blowing. The storm came in really fast. On two-block walk, the wind knocked my youngest son down and he skinned his knee. While loading the boys in the van, the wind almost blew me off balance. When we got the van to the upper parking lot, the church had lost power. I believe our bishop was inspired.--especially since he didn't mention anything about in the morning meetings.

4:00pm: After coming home from church, I took my middle son to the office with me to do an emergency server shut down (and feed my fish, Kim.) Fortunately, in preparation for the storm, everyone turned their computers off. The power flashed a few times, but we got everything turned off.

The wind was whipping pretty hard and it started to rain. When we got out of the van upon returning home, we heard a piercing crack ring out above the sound of the flapping trees. Within a few minutes a large branch from one of the two pine trees in our front yard blocked the road. If we had full church meetings, we wouldn't be able to get back into our driveway.

I attempted to go out there with a hand saw to clear the road. I wanted to be able to get out in case someone needed help. Probably a dumb thing because the wind was hitting the trees and power lines really hard. I looked up frequently and stood back against the big gusts and watched so I could dodge potential hazards. I just cut enough to clear a path for a car to get out.

Other than a few flickers, the power stayed on. I have to confess I was a little disappointed because I was looking forward to having the power out tonight because its kind of fun.

7:00pm. Perfect timing with the power going out tonight...my wife just finished cooking dinner on our electric stove right before the power went out. We got the refrigerator stuff we were planning to use tonight and tomorrow morning in a cooler with some ice so we don't have to open the freezer or fridge.

10:00pm. We played a candle-light game of Spongebob Monopoly as a family tonight. When the power is out and we have the candles going, we seem to enjoy the time together as a family.

We let the boys have a slumber party in the living room tonight so they wouldn't be upstairs where its colder and the wind hits harder. The room is nice and toasty from our Kerosene heater after only an hour. We have blankets over the open doorways to keep the heat in, but the room is still drafty enough to provide protection against dangerous post-combustion gases . The oil lamps and candles provided enough light to meet our needs, but to prevent fire, we blew those out and brought out our glow sticks: One in the family room, one in the bathroom and a few small ones in the path between the bathroom and the boys so they wouldn't be scared going to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

We have the boys protected from the wind-side window with the couch and the curtain closed, but we are actually more worried about the trees whipping so hard in the front. I'm impressed with how flexible they are blowing away from the house, but they way they are swinging in the wind, we're kind of worried they will snap on the rebound and fall into the house. Moss Lake, our mini-flood in the front yard, is filling up pretty fast too.