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.