400,000 homes without power today due to high winds. Lots of damage. 115 MPH gusts recorded on the Oregon coast at Cannon Beach. 60 MPH sustained winds in DT Seattle circa 1 P.M. Wires snapping and dancing on the ground, trees down (some in or falling onto houses). Interesting footage of a 6" diameter tree limb blown through a Toyota PU and idiots at Alki Beach, leaning at 60 degree angles into the wind. 20MPH travel across the Tacoma Narrows bridge. It's cold out.

But, hey...we don't need any preps any more. Nosiree! All is sweetness and light! The sun is out and the birds are singing and the bunny rabbits are grinning at each other! Happy,Happy, Happy! Zipidedoodah! Y2k is OVer! There will never again be any problems ANNNEEEWWWHHHEERRRE!

-- Greg Lawrence (greg@speakeasy.org), January 16, 2000

Answers

Jeez! First France then the East Coast, and now you guys are getting it!

-- Hokie (Hokie_@hotmail.com), January 16, 2000.

Hey Greg!, don't knock leaning 60 degrees into the wind until you've tried it, you, couch potato, you.

-- Guy Daley (guydaley@bwn.net), January 16, 2000.

PSA 2:1 Why are the nations in an uproar, And the peoples devising a vain thing? PSA 2:2 The kings of the earth take their stand, And the rulers take counsel together Against the Lord and against His Anointed: PSA 2:3 "Let us tear their fetters apart, And cast away their cords from us!" PSA 2:4 He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them. PSA 2:5 Then He will speak to them in His anger And terrify them in His fury:

-- JoseMiami (caris@prodigy.net), January 16, 2000.

30,000 still without power in Portland area, ca. 6:00 o'clock pm PST, with temps forecast for freezing +. Having preps makes for some peace of mind under the circumstances.

-- Squirrel Hunter (nuts@upina.tree), January 16, 2000.

Just hold on to your fruit of the looms and blow down to the nearest Red Cross shelter. They have so much 'stuff' they don't know where to put it.

Anybody who would give their preps away this soon just plain NGI (never got it).

-- Will continue (farming@home.com), January 16, 2000.

Wind blew here last night and a few outages in town (gas stations were closed) and we have more on the way. I'll put up with a few power outages just to get the rain--we need it badly! I agree "will continue," anyone who gets rid of their preps is nuts!

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), January 16, 2000.

Will continue and bardou:

Around here almost nobody has any preps to give away because they never made any to begin with!

-- dinosaur (dinosaur@williams-net.com), January 16, 2000.

Yep, power blinkers today near Portland. Don't dare to be online much, no fry thankkee.

Fortunately just last night Ashton installed his cut-sanded-welded custom heavy Lucite Acrylic 'n steel window panels he very creatively rigged to keep marauders and cold OUT :-)

Love these preps!

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), January 16, 2000.

Heh! Power out in my neighborhood for about 4 hours now, and its 8:45pm. Dark and windy, I decided to take a walk and scope out the neighborhood. I walked up and down my street, and saw one house that also had a genny hooked up. Most folks had no lights whatsoever on. A few had one oil lamp or battery lamp shining. I could hear several genny's going in the area. It was kind of interesting.

For dinner, we opened a quart of home-canned chicken soup, heated it up, toasted some toast and enjoyed a very nice, easy dinner. Even washed the dishes up with no problem, since the genny easily pumped the water uphill to the house, and also powered the gas water heater.

Oh, the genny also produces power "clean" enough to run the puter no problem, so we are just happy as clams around here.

Nice to be prepped.

-- formerly (formerly@nowhere.zzz), January 16, 2000.

[ Fair Use: For Educational/Research Purposes Only ]

Jan 16, 2000 - 10:07 PM

Wind Storms Knocks Out Power in Northwest

By Mike Wells, Associated Press Writer

SEATTLE (AP) - A fierce windstorm swept through the Pacific Northwest on Sunday, killing two people in Washington state and leaving hundreds of thousands of customers without power.

Hien Nguyen, 19, of Lacey, was killed around noon when a 120-foot fir tree blew down on his pickup truck, crushing the cab, Lt. Matt Koehler said.

A 50-year-old Seattle architect died in an avalanche at the Crystal Mountain ski resort, about 65 miles southeast of Seattle. He and another skier had hiked into a closed area when the avalanche struck at about 1:30 p.m.

The avalanche was storm related, state Department of Transportation spokeswoman Clarissa Lundeen said.

"The snow that has already fallen is being weighted down by rain and wet snow" creating high danger of avalanches, she said.

Interstate 90, running between Seattle and Spokane, was shut down periodically Sunday as crews set smaller avalanches to remove the danger of large ones sweeping down onto the roadway, Lundeen said. Blown-down trees and limbs caused most of the power outages, utility officials said.

The weather service reported sustained winds of 25 to 35 miles per hour. The highest gusts reported by the National Weather Service were 115 mph at midmorning at Cannon Beach, Ore. Gusts of 81 mph at Netarts, Ore., knocked a house 12 feet off of its foundation.

In the Seattle area, at least 36,000 Seattle City Light customers were without power after high winds swept through.

There were about 300,000 customers without power in western Washington and about 100,000 in the dark in western Orgeon.

The winds forced the precautionary closure of the floating bridge linking Seattle and its eastern suburbs. An estimated 100,000 cars use the 520 bridge each day. The outage left the Interstate 90 floating bridge, three miles to the south, as the only cross-lake span.

Puget Sound Energy spokeswoman Kremiere Boone said that most of the people living the Olympia, Puyallup and Enumclaw areas were without power.

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), January 16, 2000.

Lots of homes on the Redmond/Issaquah Plateau (18-20 miles east of Seattle) without power for most of the afternoon and evening. Power came back on at our house about an hour ago, but we used the Aladdin lamps, Coleman propane stove, and battery-powered TV earlier. Glad to be prepped, but even happier to see the electricity back on.

Winds have died down significantly in the last couple of hours. Hope everyone gets their power restored soon.

-- Don (whytocay@hotmail.com), January 17, 2000.

Spared the rod of darkness so far, but felt real spoiled about having a complete ark or arc of readypreps to sit out any suprises or suppose to's.

Hey A&L, you ever decide on going public with your Lucite and glassware sprouts system? Folks, I know this ain't entirely proper "BUT" Ashton has created one of the most elegant and masterful (sm)art works I have ever seen. He is quite an accomplished artist, and something of an engineer to boot. And Leska, well let's just say that Ashton has an eye for beauty.

Hope you both get filthy stinkin' ((((RICH)))) off it!!! `(^;)

PS. IFSO maybe Andy will hook you up, if you know what I mean.

-- Michael (mikeymac@uswest.net), January 17, 2000.

Thanks, Michael! We have power this morning, and what a great surprise to wake up to nice thoughts! Our preps have a very honored prominent dominant place in our humble abode -- even centerpieces ;^)
We won't ever be forgetting Y2K! :-)

"filthy stinkin' ((((RICH)))) ", eh? Some of Andy's gold would be a welcome change from the gold we normally clean up ;^) We already have plenty of the "filthy stinkin'" stuff now, LOL

Can feel change a'comin a'blowin in dee old bones, yep, and if we had an ounce of Michael's FIX-IT RIG-IT whizzardry we could certainly go into biz as Inventors Par Excellance.

Tinfoils United!

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), January 17, 2000.

Hey! I need a sprouter. Someone e me, or start a thread.

Not to be totally OT: weather in Toronto has been absurdly warm until a sudden Major Cold Snap this week. It's as though winter is getting compressed into a narrower but sharper cold period. Just my impression.

-- silver ion (ag3@interlog.com), January 17, 2000.