Winter Storm!

holy crap! last night was absolutely crazy. we hadn't really heard much about a storm going on even though it was raining outside, which was nothing unusual. we had done nothing all day, so we decided to go out to town. we headed to Everett to check out the rock gym there. on the way, hardly a mile from Riverside Road, we came upon several small brush fires snapping and sparking in the ditch. two cars were pulled over on the other side of the road and one man got out and walked up to the ditch, about the same time as we realized that it was a power line laying in the brush that was causing the fires. nathan called 911 to report it as we drove away, but we didn't think anything of it really.. so we went to the rock gym, stopped at WinCo and loaded up on groceries and then chugged on back to Monroe. on the way back it was raining some. flashed of lightning kept lighting up the whole sky but it was clear in front of us, and we couldn't tell where it was coming from. at one point we finally pulled over to look behind us, back at Everett, and there it was! the city was lighting up an enormous ribbon of a bank of towering clouds, roiling and thick. and the wind, which was nearly blowing my little Geo off the road, was blowing it all towards the Cascades and us.
we stopped at (where else?) Benjarong's and the whole time we were eating our delicious Sen Yai, the lights were flickering and the TV was losing reception. we ran back out to the car, and nathan kept his hat on this time, and we headed down highway 2.
all the way there the roads were full of branches. branches and bark, tree limbs, tree bits, needles, leaves, all kinds of debris blowing everywhere. the road was treebark-orange in places.
so we get to the sign that warns you of our road ahead, and there is a semi stopped in the turn lane and the thru lane has 4 or 5 stopped cars. and there's a fire truck with spotlights across the road, and all we can see is branches across the road, and a semi truck. 

the guy tells us that there's a power line across our road and the PUD is on its way, as the "highest priority call right now," as nathan liked to remind me.
so we wait...

and wait....

and wait some more.

eventually they let us through. and then we wait for another half an hour in the index cafe parking lot with the owners peeking out at us with a flashlight wondering why there is a strange lightning-bolted car outside.

so we start up the road.

before the bridge there is a wire down, across the road, that we must drive over to get home. nathan is driving at this point because it is 1am and I had been sleeping the whole time and still am not very clear headed. so I brace myself on the roof and shriek as we drive over it but nothing happens. we live.

big tree pieces in the road, large branches, roaring cascading waterfall. up the switchbacks. under the trestle. and bam! big bright lights staring at us behind the silhouette of a huge fir at an angle across the road. they trim a few branches and let us pass under it, as "one of many."

we were lucky they'd been up the road already, because right before mark and bonny's was another huge pile of trees on top of a power line. we crossed another one in the road somewhere in there. we make up the next hill and... POW BOOM BANG
there's like 6 trees down right on our driveway. we can't see the sign, or even the gravel, there are so many trees!
so we turn around barely making it without spearing ourselves on branches or falling into the ditch and knock on mark and bonny's door. they put our groceries into the fridge and put us into their spare bedroom and we sleep.

the next day the power is still not on; bonny makes us breakfast and we drive down to assess the damage. 

Mark and Bonny's deck

This branch ended up speared into the ground somehow

Bonny making Mark & Nathan pose

Trees from the night before on the power line, before their house

Approaching our driveway

Our driveway

Bonny

 

 

 

In the creek

The merry music of chainsaws and generators drifted across the neighborhood the whole day. We cut up the big tree and dragged it down the road, chopped up and put in piles the rest. Mark will take it all for firewood. The roads and ground were literally carpeted in boughs and branches; I could bend down and scoop armfuls and dig down beneath it just to get to the gravel. I drove around before driving here to the Sultan Library and counted around 9 or 10 spots where the lines are down and at least 25 trees, give or take. And this was only on Riverside Road, with a peek up one or two of the branch off roads.

So we probably won't have power until Thursday, some people are saying. I won't be surprised. but we'll probably be in Olympia because we have things planned this week.. wow!