Windstorm! Thankful to Be Alive!!!

CastoCreations

CastoCreations

Member
Jun 16, 2006
1,367
4
#1
Holy cow! What a night. Some of you may have heard about the wind and rain storm that was predicted to hit us in the Pacific Northwest last night - and boy did it ever hit us!

I've been through a lot of wind storms but I have never been anywhere near as scared as I was last night. We kept hearing this cracking, creeeeeking noise around midnight. Everytime a big gust came I was terrified that a tree was going to crash on top of us!

Finally at 1 a.m. the cracking got louder and louder - THUD! Husband went out to the front yard and there was a HUGE tree that had uprooted and cracked up the middle ... just a couple of feet from our house! It hit in just the right way so as to not hit any other trees (which would certainly have hit the house then), no cars, and no homes. It fell between a set of trees within inches!!! I swear it's as if God just guided it gently down to avoid damage. Hubby is going to take photos today...I'll upload them as soon as I can.

Of course our power had gone out around 5:30 p.m. and there was no power this morning. For some reason we had hot water...not sure why. I didn't think we had a gas water tank. But taking a shower by the light of a kerosene lantern is an experience I haven't had in awhile. We still don't have power but I'm at work now and everything is on here.

Thanks for listening!!! (okay, for reading!) It was a really bad night for people here. Lots of homes DID get hit with trees and (so far) three people have lost their lives. One woman in Seattle got trapped in her basement by a mudslide and drowned. :crybaby:

We listened to my husband's police radio last night and I cannot appreciate our police and state patrol more!!! They worked their tails off last night - trees blocking roads, electrical lines down...even a call for help from people trapped in their car with a power line over it!!! Very scary. God Bless the Police and Fire!!!!!!!!
 
#5
Glad to hear that you are okay!! I hate the feeling that you get when you think a tree will fall on top of your house. It's the worst :sad:

When I lived in Maryland, we had many trees around our house that were very tall and if they fell the wrong way they could crush the house. Luckily, that never did happen - but once during a very rainy & windy week a huge branch fell off of a tree by our driveway and totaled my mom's car :sad:
 
#6
Having moved from the midwest to the northwest...the storms here seem like nothing compared to the thunderstorms, tornadoes, etc., I've experienced.

But trees here come down much more easily as they haven't the deep root systems of colder climates. So I am always amazed at the number of trees that come down even with milder storms. I was keeping a close eye on one driving home last night. I was stopped at an intersection and there was a VERY tall tree that was leaning rather precariously. I wanted the light to hurry up and change! lol
 
#7
It's amazing...my mom works at a health organization and they're sending everyone home at noon because they have no power. Most patient appointments were cancelled!

I'm just sooo tired from staying up all night listening to the creaking and cracking. And then this morning there were five or six lightning strikes around 6 a.m. That is really unusual here.

But thankfully there was no ice because that would have made things 10x worse! As it is we're going to lose all the food in our fridge and freezer. :cursing:
 
#8
No kidding about the ice! That's what we kept saying at work yesterday....at least it's warm out!

I couldn't tell last night if the flashes I saw lighting up the sky were lightning strikes or transformers blowing up! Yikes!

But the thing I thought about the most was...if it's this bad down here...how bad was it up on the mountain for the lost hikers??
 
#13
Oh my gosh, last night was crazy! I work in a metal trailer like building, and i thought it was gonna blow away. The wind was so bad here in downtown portland that it blew dumpsters around! We had one blow off the sidewalk and in to a car, my poor officer got soaked to the bone trying to move it out of the street.

I am just glad that me and my family made it through the night safely. We had a branch start a fire a couple blocks away, but that was it.
 
#14
I read about this storm on the internet. It sounded horrible and I would think would scare anyone, expecially to be in without electricity. I am happy to hear the tree did no damage to your property.
Can I ask if you know if the storm affected the Salem, Oregon area too? I have friends there and her cellphone has been out all day. I am not sure how far she is from Portland which I see got hit.
 
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