Two days without electricity (or, where I've been lately)

scatterbunny

New member
Thursday we had a huge windstorm that knocked out power to all 26,000
residents of Tillamook County, Oregon. Actually, what I heard is that
the entire north/central Oregon coast, from Astoria to Depoe Bay, had
no power, and lots of Portland-area residents had no power, either. Our
local radio station said Friday morning there were over 1 million
Oregonians without power.

We only have electric heat, so we FROZE Thursday night. Friday we went
to a friend's house (they have wood heat) with all our camping gear and
we did fine Friday/Friday night. Power returned today, yay! We've all
been sick for over a week, so dealing with the frigid cold and no power
sucked.


But some friends had it worse. They live in a trailer park and decided
to weather the storm at another friend's house, but Thursday before
power went out they decided to go up to the trailer and get some
clothes and things. While they were inside the wind picked up one end
of the trailer and then flipped it numerous times. They had furniture,
appliances, silverware and everything else bouncing around, and in some
cases ON them. When it finally stopped rolling it was in another lot.
They had to climb out through a broken window and drive to the ER.
They're so bruised up, even their faces, and they have little cuts all
over. They are so lucky they didn't die!


Our laundry room windows are broken and the top 6 feet of the
neighbor's tree ended up in our yard, but other than that we are okay.


I got some pictures of the damage done at the city park, all kinds of
trees uprooted and blown over.
 
ADS

RubysGirl

New member
Wow, glad you guys stayed safe. Ouch! about your friends. Is their trailer salvagable? I don't doubt it was a bad storm, it passed over us but very quickly. It happened to be here when I had to be on the road and let me tell you I was nervous!! It was dark and I couldnt' see a thing. It felt like a wind gust was going to come up any momment and blow me off the roadway or into oncoming traffic. Luckly I wasn't the only car going very slow and the storm didnt' linger very long for us, maybe six hours.
 

scatterbunny

New member
No, their trailer is trashed. :( They JUST bought it, too (second-hand, I'm sure no insurance).

The storm started here at around 10-11 am on Thursday. I considered not sending Hayley to her PM kindergarten at noon, but everyone else was, and we had a bad windstorm last month that didn't do a thing to the power, so I went ahead and sent her.

At 2 pm I was SCARED. Our upstairs windows and even the WALL was flexing in and out with the wind. At about that same time the high wind gust of 86 mph near my house was recorded. At 3 pm I went to the bus stop to pick Hayley up and OMG I was scared to be on the road. My van was all over the place.

I found out later that 3 pm is the same time my friends were at their trailer, and the trailer park is right on the bay, so I know the wind where they were was stronger than where I was.

The strong wind continued all night. I was up all night in the freezing cold, listening to the radio, convinced my house was just going to cave in.

Weather Friday was fine, today it's fine. Crazy, crazy weather. We had the worst flooding ever recorded last month, now this.
 

Morganthe

New member
Jenny, I'm glad to hear you're ok. It's been rough up there in the NW --understatement, I know. :( My parents are in King County, WA and have been without power for over 2 days now. They're doing well though. They have a very wonderful wood burning stove downstairs and cook on it. Gas powered hot water heater is also good to have during outages. They call me for current news and updates on what Puget Sound electric has on their website. Ironic since I'm 2000 miles away. :p Best argument though against going completely cordless or cell phone in your home. The old fashioned cord phones will work as long as the telephone lines are up.

It's my 91 year old grandmother we were all very concerned about. She's up above Renton and EVERYTHING she has runs on electric. The roads were too dreadful yesterday for my mom to get up the major hill to pick her up. She wouldn't have left her cats anyway :rolleyes: Thankfully, the power came back on last night around midnight in her area. If it hadn't, then one of her neighbors was determined to acquire a generator for her today.

best wishes to you and your friends.
 

hsjwmom

New member
I'm sorry to hear about your friends' trailer, but I'm really glad to hear you are OK, Jenny. Thank goodness nothing happened when you were picking Hayley up from schooll! After being totally without power, are you thinking about getting any wood or gas things?
 

Ali

New member
I'm in Kent, WA. We lost power for about 18 hours from (Thurs night to Fri eve), then again for a few hours. The wind sounded so scary Thursday night. We brought DD in our room and put her as far away from the window as possible.

I'm glad you made it through!
 

RubysGirl

New member
You know it definately hit up there much harder than here. We get the power out alot here, and it didn't happen to us. I hate having the power out because we're on a well, so not just no hotwater, no water for us. We do have a woodstove though. And a very large waterheater if we ever got desperate.
 

scatterbunny

New member
Your parents sound very prepared. I wish we were! Our landlord doesn't believe in anything but electric heat. :rolleyes: I don't know if it's because we're rental properties or what. Our dream is to own our own home someday with an awesome wood stove. My grandparents' home on 20 acres was perfect. Papa built the home himself, AND the woodstove!

Mark said we are buying a generator with our tax refund and getting more prepared.

I hope your grandmother is alright!

The news tonight said 600,000 Oregonians are still without power, not sure about Washington (it was local news). They said 6 in Oregon have died due to the storm.

Jenny, I'm glad to hear you're ok. It's been rough up there in the NW --understatement, I know. :( My parents are in King County, WA and have been without power for over 2 days now. They're doing well though. They have a very wonderful wood burning stove downstairs and cook on it. Gas powered hot water heater is also good to have during outages. They call me for current news and updates on what Puget Sound electric has on their website. Ironic since I'm 2000 miles away. :p Best argument though against going completely cordless or cell phone in your home. The old fashioned cord phones will work as long as the telephone lines are up.

It's my 91 year old grandmother we were all very concerned about. She's up above Renton and EVERYTHING she has runs on electric. The roads were too dreadful yesterday for my mom to get up the major hill to pick her up. She wouldn't have left her cats anyway Thankfully, the power came back on last night around midnight in her area. If it hadn't, then one of her neighbors was determined to acquire a generator for her today.

best wishes to you and your friends.
 

scatterbunny

New member
I would LOVE to have wood heat but our landlord says NO to that. We have propane camp equipment that we did use, and will continue to use in these situations, I suppose. But dh says he wants to get a generator (LOL, I'm such a carseat geek that every time I type "generator" my hands automatically type "generations" as in, "Evenflo Generations" :p ) in Jan/Feb.

We're also going to get serious about putting together an emergency kit with food and first aid stuff and all that. With all our floods and storms lately, I'm worried it's just a sign of more to come. And it really makes me afraid to live on the coast, as much as I love it.

I'm sorry to hear about your friends' trailer, but I'm really glad to hear you are OK, Jenny. Thank goodness nothing happened when you were picking Hayley up from schooll! After being totally without power, are you thinking about getting any wood or gas things?
 

scatterbunny

New member
I'm glad you guys did, too!

I'm in Kent, WA. We lost power for about 18 hours from (Thurs night to Fri eve), then again for a few hours. The wind sounded so scary Thursday night. We brought DD in our room and put her as far away from the window as possible.

I'm glad you made it through!
 

Simplysomething

New member
How terrifying! I actually heard about the storm...online..in a scrabble chat room (don't laugh at me, I haven't been paying attention this week).

I'm glad you're ok.

You're braver than I am. When we had that nor'easter just before thanksgiving I refused to send my ds to school. And we live .8 miles from the school.

What did DD think about the storm?
 

skaterbabs

Well-known member
*sigh* yet another on a long list of reasons to NOT use electric for heat/cooking....I soooo want a gas stove. We already have a propane fireplace, and it does a great job of warming the house.
 

scatterbunny

New member
Hayley thinks storms are cool, she gets that honest. :rolleyes: I DO enjoy a good storm, but we've had so much crazy weather lately that's done so much damage that this storm wasn't exciting to me, just scary. But Hayley wasn't scared at all. She slept through the night Thursday night while I was awake watching the walls flex with each wind gust.
 

becca011906

Senior Community Member
So glad you are ok, but this worries me the new home we are in the process of buying is totall electric and we were happy about this... :( but with in 2 years we plan to add on a large family room with a wood burning fire place... but still worries me some, we are in IN so not on the coast but still crazy weather... it was over 60 today usally in the 20s or so.
 

ajweeks

New member
Glad you're ok.

My mom lives in Seattle and she was flying home from visiting us during the start of the wind storm. It is amazing that their plane was able to land and I think that her plane was one of the last ones in because aftwards a few windows in the terminal that she had landed at blew out!

I'm amazed that the 520 bridge is still afloat.
 

Morganthe

New member
Yes, my grandmother is very well now that her electricity is back on. She's just bored, but happy to be warm and have hot food. My parents still don't have electric as of 6pm Sunday, but in a way this is a blessing for them. Wierd, eh?

Well, my 76 year old dad has been going (for lack of a better word) bonkers with ocd tendencies for schedules. He's alway been an early riser. But it's nuts. About every 4 months, he backs himself up 20 minutes to get up earlier. He's now getting up around 2:30am to take out the garbage, sweep the yard, and generally make a lot of noise around the house. It's lit up like Ft Knox with all indoor and outdoor lights on. My poor mother hasn't had decent sleep in ages. He acts as if she's the nutty one for wanting peace and quiet in the night.

So with the power out, he can't do any of this during dark hours. So he's stuck inside without all the major chores he HAD to do right then :D She's able to maintain a regular pattern for his eating and now sleeping. Apparently, his color is much better along with his temper. They're getting along a lot better even though they're still up during the night to tend the fire + the aches/pains that keep them from being able to lay down over 4 hours at a time. But a major power outage appears to be aiding their 52 year marriage -- go figure :D

They've always had wood burning stoves in that house as a backup and to save money when I was younger. We used to skim piece wood out of construction projects and deadfall before it was a legal issue. This stove they have is fairly new -- only about 5 years old and is on one side of the downstairs. In a 2 story 2,000 sq. foot house -- the basement is 72 degrees -- directly upstairs in the living/dining/kitchen areas is 63 degrees and the back bedrooms upstairs are a chilly 55 degrees. It's a well insulated house, but it gives an idea how well these stoves can work if anyone is interested.

Jenny, I'm sure you've checked, but I just wanted to make sure that you know for your family's safety --- has your propane camping equipment been approved to be safe to use indoors? Venting in a large tent and venting in a house are completely different from one another. We used to do regular camping and one of our heaters had a warning that it was not be used inside a building. I'm sure an admitted safety maniac like you are has all sorts of rules on your camping stuff, especially having it off when everyone is sleeping. ;)

At least living on the coast you don't have to worry about Tornados.


I would LOVE to have wood heat but our landlord says NO to that. We have propane camp equipment that we did use, and will continue to use in these situations, I suppose. But dh says he wants to get a generator .

We're also going to get serious about putting together an emergency kit with food and first aid stuff and all that. With all our floods and storms lately, I'm worried it's just a sign of more to come. And it really makes me afraid to live on the coast, as much as I love it.
 

stayinhomewithmy6

Senior Community Member
I'm SO glad to hear that you're all okay. That sounds SO scary - like something I can't even imagine - you're WALLS were flexing?!!!! And what a relief that your friends are okay after going through something like that with their trailer! I wish we had a wood stove, but DH & I are lazy, so we probably wouldn't use one if we had it anyway. We have propane heat & hot water heater, but is it true that our propane furnace would need electricity to run (so, if the power went out, we wouldn't have heat anyway)? Someone told me that recently, and I couldn't believe it - here I thought we'd always have heat even in a power outage because we have a gas furnace!
 

RubysGirl

New member
I just heard on NPR thismorning that there's been a rash of carbon monoxide poisonings from people bring their barbeques and generaters inside. ack!
 

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