Disney 2007: Day 3

My boys holding their prized Micky Mouse Suckers.

...with their prized Micky Mouse suckers standing in front of Boo's door. I didn't realize how big those doors to the people world really were. (The exhibit opens in Spring 2008)

This captures the steam train and the big Micky Mouse Head planted in the front of the Main Street Terminal.

I really like how this turned out with no flash while waiting in line for the Indiana Jones ride. I love the colors and the lighting that gets drowned out when you use a flash. The silhouettes added a nice frame. (unplanned)

Here is my son battling Darth Maul at the Jedi Academy. He was chosen to be one of the dozen or so Jedi Padawan students. While in training Darth Maul and Darth Vader crashed the party and tried to make all the younglings join the dark side.

My son defeating Darth Vader just a few minutes after learning basic light sabre technique. Fortunately none of the Padawans joined the dark side and together they caused Darth Vader and Darth Maul to retreat. Thus my son graduated from Padawan school!

California's Golden Arches. The lighted Golden Gate bridge guarding the entrance to Disney's California Adventure.

Disney 2007 Day 2

You may recognize this signature landscape. I am fascinated with how realistic they made things look, even though the materials were significantly different than the things they were made to represent. Great artistry.

I decided to take some video with my digital camera as we rode on Thunder Mountain Railroad--more perspective photography/videography that I enjoy .

The front side of Cinderella's Castle was decked out in glowing icicles and shimmering snow on the roof. I love the cool, blue glow. It also reflected nicely in its moat.

Disney 2007 Day 1

The backside of Cinderella's Castle from the line to Peter Pan.

Tarzan's Tree House, had a path taking you way up into the life-like man-made tree where you ran into a cougar and saw a little bit of Tarzan's history. Then the walkway takes you back down to swing on ropes among other interactive activities.

Disneyland was decorated beautifully for the holidays with Christmas lights all over main street. Christmas music played through speakers along the street. A very nice touch.

"It's A Small World" was decked out for the Holidays with passerby's surrounded with calming Christmas music (Taken without a flash).

A closer view of the the festive "Small World." This ride was also changed for the holiday with Christmas decorations everywhere! "Jingle Bells" was mixed in between the 'It's A Small World" lyrics...well orchestrated. This ride really gets picked on, but in reality it is a very impressive exhibit.

Christmas Music

Here are some samples of some of my favorite Christmas music. The Blenders (another, often, a capella group) have great arrangements, range, and blend.

I also really like how well the sound is mixed on the recordings. It seems to capture the full blend, frequency range, and depth of their voices. From these clips, their live performance is well mixed as well.

They are quite talented. You can hear more samples from their website: http://www.theblenders.com/main.html

What are your favorite Christmas artists/songs?

The Highlight of Last Week

Now that I've recorded some of my experiences and thoughts about the storm we had two weeks ago, I can go back to regularly (or regular random) scheduled programing with lighter topic mixed with occasional contemplative posts.

My kids never fail to surprise me. They do things I would never think of...yet when you realize their reasoning, it totally makes sense. You can read this last week's unique experience by meandering down the Moss Grove Wildlife Trail Head...

The Unexplainable Impact

The crazy storm two weeks ago and the week-long+ after math left a very significant impression on me. How quickly things can change and how fragile things can be and how human behavior is affected by significant disruptions and threats to one's basic needs. I learned to respect the power of nature and was left to rethink my priorities. I definitely want to be proactive about any potential threats like that again.

I also learned how mindful Heavenly Father is of our needs. Miracles are witnessed everywhere through this storm--mercy echoes through every aspect of this storm from the storm to the protection from the storm to the lessons learned through this storm. I realized the significance of the word "Father" when respectfully referring to God as our Heavenly Father.

I'm sure I will have more contemplative moments reflecting different things that soaked into my mind and heart from the storm. But hopefully they will be helpful to you. Although I fear its almost impossible to understand the full impact of an experience like this without actually living through it, I hope some of the stuff I have said or will say about it will help someone else be better prepared and apply the experience to their lives.

I have much better respect and empathy for those who endured similar and worse experiences than I did.

You can also read about how it affected others--and see more pictures--by reading recent posts on some of the blog links listed in my Trail Heads links.

The Daily Astorian Photos and Stories of Wind Storm

http://www.dailyastorian.com/main.asp?SectionID=155&TM=49321.75

The Hurricane Unknown to the World, Day 4

Wednesday, December 3, 2007

7:30am. The wind storm is officially over, but the power is still out almost everywhere (even some of the power is out again where they had it going last night,) phones are still out. The utility crews are working hard. You see trucks everywhere--its quite reassuring.

The telephone company discovered four breaks in their fibre optic cable ring that connects us to the outside world. The fibre optic ring is designed so if it breaks, the signal goes back the other way, so service isn't disrupted. However with the four breaks, both routes were cut-off.

The kids have been troopers through it all. Even though there is no school for the rest of the week and they get antsy, they are actually better behaved with the power off! Although at night they tend to get more impatient with the power outage.

Off to work.

6:00pm. The challenge for work today was how to process payroll without power. We were determined to make it happen this week even if we had to write the checks manually. Direct Deposit is out because that has to be submited online two days before payday...which would be today. Our payroll clerk is calculating time sheets with an abacus...Ok, actually its a plain calculator.

One of the group homes bought a generator with some of their savings so we decided to try taking the server to that group home and entering payroll in the accounting system with the generator power. We took the single-desktop computer uninterupted power supply (ups)to regulate the unsteady power from the generator. It worked amazingly well!--and the battery back-up was useful more than once. Payroll went much quicker than the nightmare thought of doing it all by hand.

So our payroll person hung out at the group home entering payroll directly on the server and I hung out at the office opening the three-days worth of mail and being available when we needed odds and end information from the office for payroll.

While I was there one of the office staff people we hadn't heard from yet came to check on us. We were glad she was alright.

The director and associate director went to run errands to all the homes, such as the heaters that were picked up in Portland yesterday.

With all the running around, I concluded I had to get gas. Earlier that day, it was reported that Fred Meyer was hooking up generators to their gas pumps and had a couple truck loads of gas lined up to make there was enough for everybody. I waited in line for a half anhour to get gas which actually surprised me because the lines at a very few other gas stations I saw or heard about (running with generators) were several blocks long.

As I was coming home after a full day, I noticed the street light start to glow. To my joy the power came back on!! That was a relief because our freezer already had stuff dripping down the fridge from melting, the big freezer was reaching the end of its ice age, and the frozen turkey we put in the fridge to keep it cool was getting thawed out pretty well. I got home to lights on in the kitchen...and the phone rang.

It was from a family friend in Vancouver! The phones were working again! It was nice to have contact with the world again! When our director went to Portland yesterday, they made a few calls to family in Vancouver for us so they would know we were alright.

After reporting on how well we were doing, the lights flickered, got really dim and went black. My middle son and I went outside and saw bright blue-ish light flash from behind distant trees, then we heard an long electric growl--must be a transformer blowout. When you start a vacuum the lights in your home flicker the instant its turned on, perhaps with thousands of electrical appliances starting all at once when the power came it overloaded a transformer. I don't know how it all works, but that's what I imagine. Seeing and hearing the electrical explosion instantly gave me respect for the power of those quite electricity lines running overhead along the roads.

So our power was out again. It felt like dangling on a yo-yo--just get our hopes up after 3 1/2 days without power and then within an hour its out again. But there was still hope because one block away from us the street lights still dotted the roads and the glow from the Fred Meyer vicinity was glowing.

9:00pm. After the power went out, some friends of ours decided to visit family in the Portland area and let us borrow their generator. We tried it on our freezer for about five minutes, but the fumes and the noise disturbed us too much so, we decided to go to Fred Meyer to try our luck getting ice.

It was refreshing seeing a somewhat normal visit to the store. Although they had generators during the storm, Fred Meyer still pulled all of their freezer/fridge items and put them somewhere. I don't know if they locked them in a freezer to stay cool or if they had to throw it out, but when we got there they were beginning to restock the frozen foods. Not surprisingly, the ice was gone.

This visit was different than what my co-worker described her experience when she went on Monday. She said people were animals. I guess when you're paniced and not prepared, your more willing to compromise your ethics and courtesies. I don't know, but it makes me want to be prepared all the time, so don't have to be at the mercy of panic and its thoughtless compromising.

While we were there, we ran into one of our fellow church members. We exchanged reports on how we faired the storm. They lost all of the trees on their lot and one tree pierced their roof..fortunately, not a whole lot. They were still without power or phone. Gratefully, the friends who let us borrow their generator also let us borrow a cell phone on the only cell phone service that's been active throughout the week...and only at certain hot spots (Fred Meyer was close to one of them). She was able to call home for the first time all week to let her family know they were alright.

Shortly after we got home, the power came back on again! I called our bishop to give him a status report on our contact with fellow church members.

We went to sleep without the Kerosene heater, candles, and we were out of glow sticks!

The Hurricane Unknown to the World, Day 3

Tuesday, December 3, 2007

7:30am. The wind is still blowing strong, but no where near what the last two days have been. The power is out. The phones are still cut off from the outside world. They don't usually call Pacific Northwest wind storms hurricanes, but to give you some perspective:

Category One Hurricane: Winds 74-95mph

Category Two Hurricane: Winds 96-110mph

Category Three Hurricane: Winds 111-130mph.



NOAA reported wind gusts were reported at 129mph in Bay City (Tillamook County)! NOAA's 4:30am report showed wind gust at 85mph in our area and seas were reported at 60-70 feet, averaging 44 feet. With the 13 ships or so out at sea waiting for the Columbia River Bar to open, I can't even imagine what their experience was like.

Well, I'm off to work, taking the hand crank flashlight radio my dad gave us one Christmas. Its been a life saver. That's the only way we know what is going on. They've been working all day and all night having different knowledgables such as the County Sheriff, the Mayor of Astoria, and other people reporting updates from the frequent Emergency Operation Center meetings.


4:00pm. I got to work about a quarter to 8am. The parking lot was, again, empty so I waited listening to the radio (with the car off because the 'low fuel' light was on and the only gas available was for emergency vehicles.) With no power, the gas stations can't pump the gas. Its amazing how dependent we are on electricity. With the roads closed, supplies can't get in, either. Fortunately, they reported this morning that Hwy 30 was open with a pilot car...the breached dike at Westport and the mud slide must be cleared somewhat.

Shortly after 8am, two more people showed up. Its payroll week, so one of them left to gather time sheets from some of the group homes. Meanwhile the payroll clerk and I went upstairs to try to figure out what to do. The phone system in the office requires electricty, but our fax line connects straight to the 'outside' so we hooked up a 'landline' phone to that for communication during power outages.

Shortly after we opened the office, the Associate Director arrived after traveling accross the river from Washington. Several other people popped in randomly throughout the morning to give updates and find out what was going on. It was nice to finally have contact with people from different parts of the area with different information about how everyone was doing. Several staff showed up to ask if they needed to work, others came to tell us they couldn't work. One of the graveyard staff from yesterday showed up and gave us her contact number so she could help again after she got a little rest.



Our director and his wife drove around yesterday, checking on different employees and group homes. As they tried driving south to check on the five homes a wind gust almost tipped their heavy duty truck over, so they turned around and went home with their two fallen trees. They also live near lumber forests. They mentioned the trees on the hills were snapped like tooth picks. They could hear the rush of the wind before it slammed into their house.


We found out our Thrift Store window blew out in the storm along with several other businesses. That means rain and wind damage. Fortunately yesterday, our vocational directo was able to board up the window. Sadly it sounds like the bike shop in downtown Astoria was looted. I'm sure others were as well.

Our director and his wife planned to drive to Portland, to get time sheets from our Gresham area group homes (its angering when you are trying to making sure the basic needs of food, water and shelter are taken care and one of the first questions you are asked is 'When do we get paid?') and to get gas heaters for the group homes.

Its supposed to get really cold in the next few days and with the reported damage, the power doesn't look like it will be available very soon. They have about 300 people from all different states and companies working 24-7 to get the power up and running. We also found out that some of the big lines from the Bonneville Power Administration (the Columbia River Dams) were downed by the storm so they are trying to hook those up as well. With the trees down they have to litterally cut their way to the downed power lines. And there could be several breaks along the path. They are turning out to be the heroes--all those poeple working so hard.

They are trying to get power to the big shopping areas first (Fred Meyer, Costco business area which includes food and gas) so people can get food, supplies and gas. Fred Meyer has generators for their main store, but the radio reported yesterday that they only had dry goods left after the mad, panic rush of yesterday.

While our Director left for Portland, the Associate Director and I got a ride down to check on our southern county group homes. This trip was eye-opening. A lot of trees down, but miraculously not a lot of property damage. When trees fell on homes, most of the time they didn't break through. A lot of shingles were missing and a lot of blue tarp-patched roofs. There are lot of reports of miracle protection from trees missing homes and property by small margins or trees falling in unexpected ways to miss homes.

We saw a lot of trees in power lines. Some trees snapped partway up the tree, others pushed right over exposing the giant root balls. Most of the trees here are evergreens which have shallow roots, but large trunks and a lot of leverage from the wind pushing against the needles. I'm amazed, though, that a lot of the tall trees are still standing. I suppose if they've lived this long through all the storms and wild weather through their life, they deserve to stay standing.

Our are trip, we passed the remnants of a aluminum barn that litterally exploded in the wind. The strips of aluminum flapped through the air wrapping around fence posts and scattering accross the highway. Its scary to think of a giant razor blade flying through the air at 85 mph.

The first homes we came to share the same plot of land. Other than the neighbors wooden fence laid out along the ground, they stayed in tact pretty well. The problem there is they have well water. Without the power their pumps can't draw the water. Fortunately, per licensing requirement, they had a 300 gallon tank of reserve water for the sprinkler system. They also had bottled water since the well water doesn't taste very good. We took their empty five gallon jugs to fill up at the next group home we get to which has city water.

I am so grateful the city water is pumping (via generators) and that the natural gas is still intact.

One of the two homes has a gas fireplace which made the house nice a toasty (at the expense of the food in the kitchen's fridge and freezer.) They also had a gas stove so they were cooking for both homes. The worry at the other home, though is warmth at night. Many of the people we serve are medically fragile so we have to be especially sensitive to their needs.

The other thing these homes seem to need are batteries, flashlights, and radios to keep in tact. Staffing is a challenge as well--not only from not being able to contact people and people imobilized from trees falling on the roads, but many staff don't have enough gas to drive the 20-40+ minutes back and forth.

We hitched a ride with another person who was driving the only company vehicle that had a full tank of gas. It seems he other vehicles may have had gas sifoned out of them. People are desparate. After getting in the van I quickly learned why it had a full tank of gas. Let's just say it still stopped when you pressed the brake pedal even though it sounded like it was grinding the pads to smitherines.

We went to our Seaside homes to check on them. One of the homes had the sky light blown off and the residents were staying in a local hotel. But they patched it this morning. I have to say the weather is pretty nice, now, actually. Its not raining, its a little windy, but its actually quite peaceful. One of advantages to this home and its sister home back to back is they are right next door to one of the emergency shelters that was set up in Seaside. They were providing hot food for our people and taking good care of everyone.

The third home in Seaside wasn't in a good shape. Shortly after the storm broke late Sunday Morning, part of the roof flew off. When we went to check it out and salvage a few more things from it, we saw a piece of the roof a block away before we got there. Upon arrival we could see the bulk of the roof laying one a fence on the opposite side of the home from where it blew off. Little pieces of insulation littered the street, the yard and the inside of the house.







The roof blew off over the office and one of the resident's bedrooms, but the whole upstairs was blasted by the wind. The floors and ceiling we were walking on were soaking wet. It even started to drain to the downstairs. When the roof blew of one of the rafters ripped through the ceiling making it dangerous. We gathered as many of the critical records as we could. We gather clothes, blankets, some of the resident's personal items like computers, TVs, .... When they evacuated they took the medications and some of the other critical items and left the rest at the mercy of the storm.

The residents are now trapped on the third floor of the Shilo Inn because those in wheel chairs can't make it down the elevators with the power out. But at least everyone was safe. I just can't imagine my personal stuff being totally destroyed like that. It just goes to show in an emergency, when you're fighting for life, what's really important shows through. But the aftermath, when reality hits, is when it can rub in and cause a lot of emotional damage.

The other home we went to, in Gearhart, faired well. They needed batteries and a way to keep warm--and staff. We filled up the water jugs here and returned them to the homes.

What a relief to know everyone was alright!

We got back to the office in time to sign for a letter from the Postman...They kept the mail going through the storm and everything!

Our payroll clerk had a good idea to put a message board outside our door so people could leave notes while we were running around. When we got back there was a message from the Emergency Operation Center/Dept. of Human Services asking us to drop by and give a report of our status. It was comforting to know that in all the rush of everything, the County was trying to watch out for us.

I came home around 3:30pm to my wife cooking onion rings and we did french fries too! We are blessed to be protected and prepared for this particular situation.

9:00pm. After a nice warm meal, we spent the evening listening to the radio for the latest updates. To ease the stress, the DJ's are letting people call in and they are having a good time. A lot of hero stories. Although you hear reports of people stealing generators and looting...or charging $5.00/gallon of gas to hand pump it, most of the stories are hero stories of neighbors helping neighbors and cheers for the utility workers and all the people working so hard to provide for people's needs.

We got word that the East side of Astoria and Knappa have power again! Safeway, brought in generators to be able to pump gas.

We warmed up again to the Kerosene heater, we only have two light sticks left, but our hand crank radio is also a flashlight. After blowing out all of the candles, oil lamps, and the heater, we put the light sticks, cranked the flashlight/radio and left the light on for the boys.

Another day, but I feel good knowing I was able to help in some way today!

The Hurricane Unknown to the World, Day 2

Monday, December 2, 2007.


4:00am. I've been up every two hours tonight (not counting the lack of sleep while I'm in bed) doing my routine of looking through designated windows to see what kind of damage is happening outside. Last night the storm didn't seem so bad, but when the gusts of wind hit the south side of the house (outside our bedroom), the windows rattle really badly and the whole house shakes like its an earthquake. I understand now what they mean when they talk about tornadoes and hurricanes sounding like a freight train. The rain is just pelting the windows and the outside of the house like its trying to shoot into the house.

I check on the boys, pleased that they are able to sleep so soundly through the storm.

I look out the window to see how the trees in front are doing. I heard a crack similar to the one we heard yesterday and it looks like some more big limbs have fallen on the street side of the tree. Sometimes I will go stand on the front porch to watch and listen to the intensity of the storm. Random car lights, faintly reflecting off of the rain-pounded streets and the scary, swaying trees, grow brighter and brighter until, in an instant, it becomes dark as the car passes, leaving the sounds of the storm echoing louder in your ears. The sounds, combined with the fast moving shadows, tempt your imagination to the worst scenarios.

I go upstairs to check out the boy's bedroom window, which tends to slip open slightly. As I push the window closed, I hear intense 'scraping' sounds from the roof. Fortunately, the roof is not leaking, but I had visions of the shingles shooting off the roof like a machine gun. During intense rumbling on the roof, it sounded to me like nails were pulling out as boards were being ripped from the roof. Fortunately, when I fought the wind to go outside, the roof was still there, although it was too dark to see the extent of any damage--fortunately no projectiles hit me.

Finally, I looked out the kitchen window and had to gasp. During the four years or so that we've lived here through big storms, there were two tall evergreen trees a few miles away that stood taller than any other tree on the horizon. These were my storm security indicators. They always endured the storms and as long as they stood strong, I knew we would hold out in the storm. But to my dismay, both of those trees left a hole in the the horizon. My security indicator was gone....this is a bad storm.

9:00am. I eventually force-fell asleep from not being able to sleep all night. In the morning the wind was still blowing pretty intensely and the rain was falling. Moss Lake was full. The power is still out, but fortunately, we have a gas water heater so I was able to take a warm shower this morning to candle light.

The school's new phone notification system told us yesterday before the power went out that school was cancelled for today. I figured the office would be closed today as well since we can't us the accounting system without power, but I wanted to verify with my boss. We learned several power outages ago how important it is to have a regular, non-chordless phone. To my surprise all I got was a fast busy signal. I called the office and knew right away the power was off since the answering machine didn't work. I checked my cell phone to see if anyone had called and realized the cell phones and the regular phones were down. Not being able to call anyone left me with one option: go to the office to see.

Thinking the storm died down a little, I let the kids come with me to the office. The wind was rocking the van. Roof tiles were everywhere, but fortunately the second roof was still intact. Sure enough some more branches from the trees in front fell and blocked the road. Fortunately I was able to drive around on the neighbors slippery, soft, muddy lawn. Good thing we have an all-wheel drive Chevy Astro. I felt bad putting ruts in their lawn, but someone before me did it and I justified it as important enough to get to the office to see what was going on.


Driving the two miles to work was eye-opening. We passed a tree that had fallen onto a home. The large information signs were flat on the ground. We passed a wire dangling into the street. An RV was flipped on its side at the RV repair shop. Some power poles were leaning. The van was bouncing horizontally in reaction to the wind.

I pulled into the office parking lot which was eerily quite and empty. We went up to the empty office. No way to communicate with anyone. I went back downstairs to get the wind-up flashlight we left in the van, but stopped at the glass doors and watched the van almost lift off the ground in the wind. I guess the wind's affect is worse here!

I quickly got the boys, secured the office, and we battled the wind by running low and quick into the van so none of the boys would get swept away. I had to pull hard to open the driver side door which was opening against the wind. We made it safely back home, slipping through the mud around the tree back to the driveway.

2:00pm. With the phones down, our window to the world has been the radio station. One local station, designated as the emergency communication center, is keeping us in the loop with everything. Everyone is working so hard...fire fighters, police, other emergency personnel, the radio DJ's and several other people are working around the clock, non-stop to deal with all the problems this storm created. We found out all the roads to our corner of the world are closed due to downed trees and power lines, floods, and slides. That means no one gets out and no supplies including ice, fuel, food, and the 88+ power company workers from Utah and other Western states can't get here. We used almost all of our gas on our trip to Vancouver, Washington on Saturday. So we're trying to ration such resources.

Shortly after we got home this morning, our neighbor tried going around the tree-block in the road and buried her front wheels half-way into the mud. I tried to push her out without success. We abandoned with visions of large branches flying off the tree and crushing her car. Fortunately within a half an hour, our other neighbor, finding he couldn't get back to his house, got a pull chain, pulled her car out and pulled the branches out of the road. We only soaked the windward side of our clothes since the rain was flying virtually horizontally. Again, we were often looking up so we could at least see what was going to hit us if it got ripped apart by the wind. It felt good to work together as a team of neighbors.

A stall worth member of our church, knowing phone communications were down, plowed through the wind and rain, from the other side of Astoria, over the full wind-exposed Young's Bay bridge to check up on some of us in Warrenton. That was quite comforting to know people were concerned about us. A short time later his wife, who is President of the Relief Society (the church Women's Auxilary group,) came to talk with me about calling church members within our exchange (the first three digits of the phone number after the area code) since that was the limit of our communication. Fortunately everyone here fared really well so far.


The most stressful thing for me today is not being able to contact anyone from work. I don't know if they are hurt and need help or if our group homes and the people with developmental disabilities we serve are in trouble. The company I work for manages several group homes for adults with developmental disabilities--in essence our employees are the family for these individuals. With phone calling limited within my exchange, that only gives me access to three of the ten group homes and I can only connect with two of them. Does that mean the other is in really bad condition? Their home is surrounded by tree. Maybe a tree crushed their home with the five people and their staff?!! I was relieved when I found out they were in contact with the other group homes--and they were alright. Out of the hundred or so Administration staff, managers and direct line staff. I've only been able to talk to three different people so far.

9:00pm. What a stressful day its been!

I got a call late this afternoon from the Warrenton group homes--many of the staff still working are the graveyard staff. They're quickly creeping up to 24 hours straight with no relief. No one can get a hold of anyone and many day shift staff haven't shown up. To help, I decided to drive to the church and make some calls within the Astoria exchange. It was a scary going over the Young's Bay bridge, and I was stunned at the damage I saw. Signs blown apart, down, and smashed. Tapiola Park had almost every tree down. One street light was dangling. Lots of debris and trees and downed wires. All but one and a half of the trees at the church had fallen--and there was a wire dangling in the road.

Out of all the calls I made to attempt to get a hold of various people, I only got a hold of one person. She was stressed herself, knowing the night shift was pushing their physical limits, but she was trapped by a tree blocking her road. They had been working on it for four hours already. It was just nice to know someone was trying to get out there and that news alone would provide reassurance that the graveyard crew wasn't forgotten. But where were the others? A scary storm proven to be destructive, no communication and the imagination draped heavy anxiety down on me.

I made it home safely, comforted that my family was safe and sound after seeing what I had seen today. Another warm meal of spaghetti (and Crab that our neighbor gave us), another toasty evening from the Kerosene, more glow sticks, and a hope that with the storm that's been raging for two days will be gone tomorrow, things are looking up. I expect to sleep much better tonight.

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.