Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Finally the storm came, and all the skeptics must have been sorry they did not stock up ahead of time; it lasted three long days of winds up to 140 up in the hills, and 85 mph whipping through the towns. Downtown Astoria’s businesses lost windows, sucked out by the vacuum of the wind, and all over Northwest Oregon and our Peninsula groves of trees splintered and toppled, roofs and siding blew off, and power went out for four to seven days. In our case, four was bad enough. I especially pined for the internet. Until the storm finally ceased, and the tiresome roaring winds died down, it was too dangerous to go out and check on the damage. We were in a land of mystery, cut off from the outside world with no telephone service and all the roads in and out blocked by fallen trees. KMUN radio station in Astoria kept broadcasting with a generator, but had no news of our side of the river. I read the new Dick Francis by a good lantern flashlight and grimly waited it out, expecting a tree to fall on us at any moment.
When finally we emerged, the damage was impressive, but I felt kind of vulture-like taking photos of people’s woeful upended fences and trees. Our friends from New Orleans told us they had found it worse than a hurricane, as it lasted for such a long time. A few days later, I did take some photos of the damage here and there.
At Seanest, the driftwood temple which my former partner, Robert, built some years ago imploded inward, and at the Tinker House near Jo’s garden, the glass of the patio shelter shattered.
Jo’s fence and garden took a beating, and broken styrofoam bits had been swirled out a neighbour’s storage shed and scattered everywhere like snowdrifts. Other neighbours will have some sawing to do...
Along Sandridge Road on the bay side of the Peninsula, entire groves of trees were mangled and splintered into heaps. Along all the roads we saw this, but nowhere as dramatically as around 220th and Sandridge.
We visited all of our gardens, and other than the temple at Seanest found little heartbreaking damage. Two clients and friends had chain link fences yanked high into the air by massive fallen tree rootballs. One house was deserted, the battery backup sadly bleating while the people and horses were all gone to more friendly climes, perhaps. Denny at KBC was forlorn and lonely because Mary was stranded up in Silverdale and could not drive back for three days.,,nor could he get any word to her that the cabins had not blown away. J9 had a tree down on a power line, and she and Jill were without power for days longer than we were. Allan, having cleverly filled the gas tank the day before, had enough fuel to motor all over the Pensinsula till the pumps were working again, so rather than go on vacation as planned we spent the next week picking up debris and propping the plants back upright again. I am grateful for Allan’s childhood camping skills which enabled us to have hot coffee and warm meals! I would have been chewing raw coffee beans. Which reminds me, you cannot grind coffee beans without electricity, so remember to grind them the night before. Happily, when the local store opened with a generator we were able to get some ground beans (and more chocolate). By the second day, the store was well picked over and had one loaf of bread on the shelf and was giving away free melted ice cream. Allan took three quarts and, I believe, managed to eat two of them!
For more photos of storm damage, including one of of the afore-mentioned chain link fences, check out Damian Mulinix’s gallery.
