Dec. 14th, 2006
We had another cycle of wild weather in Western Washington. This was a major wind storm, with gusts overnight of 65 mph. The evening started while I was at Jacob's aunt and uncles house for a spa party. We heard a big gust of wind and then the whole house had a huge shake. We all froze with fright. Kerry came running out from the back room and said, "I've been worried about the cedar tree in the front yard all day, and I think it just came down onto the house". Sure enough, the huge tree had completely uprooted and was propped against the brand new remodel side of the house. Luckily, everyone was safe but a bit shook up. I quickly headed home amidst already wild wind. The evening proved to be a scary one. After finishing making sugar cookies for my kids to decorate the next day (I knew that if I didn't make the cookies, then school would be on as usual and then I wouldn't have the treats for my kids, so I stayed up to make them) Jacob and I decided to stay in our downstairs guest room instead of in our upstairs bedroom. Our house is completely surrounded by huge trees so I was a bit nervous. It was very loud with the wind wipping against the house and branches thumping on the roof. Finally I dozed off, but was awakened around 11:30 by Jacob jumping out of bed and announcing, "that's it, we're moving the mattress into the other spare room", which is across the hall and further away from falling tress. Apparently he had been awakened by the house shaking. We think that might have been the tree falling (picture below) on the side of the driveway. After moving the mattress and settling in bed again I couldn't sleep with the amazingly loud sound of the wind and the shake of the house as good size branches hit the roof. Then we were treated to a light show as all of the transformers began exploding. We thought it was lightning, but later realized it was probably just a series of transformers. Needless to say, our power was out. We awoke to a huge mess in the yard and the announcement that over a million people in western washington were without power. All of the area schools were closed, which was a huge bummer considering it was our last day before break and I was unable to wrap up remaining projects and give my kids their Christmas gift and say goodbye. Of course, good old Sunset Air was on the one block of Lacey with power so Jacob got up and went to work. The house was super cold so I ventured out to get coffee for myself and Jacob. There were only a few places with power around town and these were massivly crowded. I think I waited in the Starbucks line for 40 minutes. Our power finally came on around 5 p.m. on Friday. As of late Saturday night my mom and dad's power was still out. It has been a wild couple of days. I'm glad to be getting back to normal!
The view of our side yard covered in branches.
Big branches down by the road looking up at our house.
This branch got lodged straight out of the ground.
The tree that came down. The sheer strength of the wind snapped it at its base.
