NW Storm

[Loren&Rocky]

We are ok, but trapped. There is no getting in or out where we live. Our low land neighbors are in a terrible spot. Their animals are even worse off. We saw a calf get swept away. It is so bad.

One of our roads to town:

one of our neighbors:

Their horses:

another house:

A beautiful farm, now, not so much

Here are the cows that lost a calf. It was terrible to see

Here is a black hawk trying to get to these people. Their horses are in the driveway with them and there is no where to go

And Loren and David by the waters edge

 

[Sue S]

Hope every one will be ok, we have alot of snow here where I live in Wisc. and alot of ice, this afternoon another storm coming in but just suppose to be snow. Will be praying for everyone and keep your little horsees safe.

 

[Crabby-Chicken]

Oh man,,,

they have opened a red cross center for people in our town. So awesome. We were really lucky. I DO want to yank out ever huge fir in my yard now though!!!!Hate them things.

Glad everyone is okay. And Susanne we are thinking of you.

Annette glad it has dried out their, and hope the septic clears itself. Mark and Matthew had to dig yesterday to clear a clogged baffle out. It was just absolutely sopping.

My daughters 20th birthday was yesterday and I got a call from her telling me that her Dad and brother were trying to giver her "poop hugs" for her present. Gross. OH!

 

[mininik]

Oh... wow. Please stay safe everyone!

 

[Equuisize]

Now that we have power, we just watched the news for the first time since Sunday night.

The devastation is unimaginable, once again. Having gone thru it last year, personally,

my mind still does not comprehend such vast damage.

A levy broke in the Centralia/Chehalis area, not to far from Kim, (Crabby Chicken)

and the whole shopping area off Interstate 5 is closed for 20 miles.....totally, I mean totally

flooded out.......they are, like in the photos above, showing helicoptering people off their properties..

They said the the wind gauge in Hoquiam recorded 81 miles an hour winds before the wind

knocked it out and broke it....heaven only knows how high the winds actually got.

So fortunate that more people were not killed or injured.......So many people stranded.

I feel so, for the folks with proerpty damage....as we know from experience the help is not

enough that you ever recover from the losses.....but as long as people are OK - loss of stuff

just isn't the priority.

Hang in there everyone, it's going to be awhile before this mess is cleaned up.

 

[REO]

Holy crap!

You all sure had a rough time! I've only been in 100 mph wind and that was bad enough! Very scary! I'm glad you're safe. I hope Suzanne and the others are heard from and safe too.

What a horrid storm! Take care everyone!

Those cows, poor things

 

[ClickMini]

All of those poor animals. And to think that Ty and Ben were mad because they had a couple inches in their shelter. I will have to show them those pics and tell them how lucky they are. We live in the river valley but have never had to evac our animals...we are high enough by a couple of feet to stay out of the flood water range (so far!). The problem yesterday was the RAIN...Torrential, and coming down off the hills. The ground was saturated and could not absorb anymore. Even so, it wasn't "terrible" here, just messy. If it ever looked really bad here we could evac to the fairgrounds, that could happen someday I suppose. I have helped others evac there when needed.

I feel so bad for the people and animals who were so flooded yesterday. It was FAR from a typical storm. Places flooded that never have.

I was shopping in Centralia on Sunday, guess their holiday season is over.

 

[Crabby-Chicken]

Man, it is terrible. It is hard to comprehend. We are lucky we are dry. But luck really is it.

Nancy, do you know if the fair grounds in Elma has been flooded?

I am hearing and more and more helicopter activity around us. Probably while it is light to see. Poor people and animals.

 

[Equuisize]

I don't think so Kim....we ate at the Rustry Tractor yesterday....they had the one door

closest to your FAVORITE latte stand sand bagged. Elma seemed to have power most

places, in the downtown area. They closed the Dennis Company in Elma yesterday

afternoon, they had power but their computers went down. We went to the V & S

store for extra batteries for the flashligts. I think parts of Elma away from the Chehalis

River did OK except for the wind damage, the tree debris on the roads immense. Hiway 12

going from here to your place was a mess, at Elma unless you could swim. It was under water

and I heard on the radio that Porter Creek would probably crest later today so that adds another

area to Hiway 12 that'll be unpasable.... Do you guys have shavings and enough feed for

your kids to get thru till the mess is cleaned up? Don't think unless you know one of the round

a bout ways you'll get down here.....

Maybe Whiteman's will check in later with more info on Elma..... I know Montesano is still

closed down.......My oldest son and grandaughter have birthdays at the end of the week and

I need to get their cards mailed out - should have thought about that yesterday as I could have

mailed them in Elma yesterday.....not going to go out unless we have to now, like if the power went out again or I run out of Coke LOL LOL, till the mess is cleared up.....

 

[Denise]

Wow you all are really getting pounded! Those pictures really bring it home. How horrible for the livestock stranded and those homes that are just ruined. Will pray that there is relief in sight for you all soon, very soon.

 

[Crabby-Chicken]

Hey Nancy,,, thanks!

I stocked up last week when I heard "snow", didn't think the wind storm would be that bad! Yikes.

 

[Shari]

Those are some impressive pictures of the flooding... just hope everyone is ok. We are getting a bit of a break from the rain right now, so I hope it will help get the rivers back to where they are supposed to be quickly.

 

[RainSong]

As usual, we didn't get here as hard as everyone else. Only just got 'net back- it went out almost 48 hours ago. We had flickering lights for a day plus, and then last night around 8:30pm our power went out.

Willamina creek was barely below flooding when we ran down the hill to grab supplies and stop in at Joe's (it's a restraunt here) to grab brunch and see what the locals were up to. Yea, we've lived here 7 years but no one knows us- comes from being in the "New" subdivision and being quiet sorts.

Sheridan (next town down) WAS flooded. My mother and brother both got stuck at home- 22 and 18 were both closed. 18 was still closed this morning, but they both got out and to work/school without issue.

Our backyard is under probably an inch to half a foot of water- if we had a basement I have no doubt we'd now have a swimming pool in it. No news on the creek this evening.

Been worrying about everyone else- was really worried about Nootka and her crew. I was SO GLAD to read the boat was safely docked! PHEW.

And hey, our fence stayed in place this time, instead of going to visit the neighbor below us and smushing his gardens...

 

[Valerie]

Wow........we are pretty lucky in the Tumwater area.....or my area....but I do know hubby had to go out and his police dive team had to help rescue 37 people from the Rochester (south of us, closer to where the freeway is shut down) due to flooding and that was most of today.....and he just got home around 5 to go to bed for a few hours to go back to work at 9 for his graveyard shift.

The pictures on tv are just amazing.....my heart goes out to all of these people. Kim I am so glad to hear you guys are ok at your place.....I have been worrying & wondering.

I sure wish I could do more, but I have been struck down with Bronchitis & a sinus infection and am just now getting back to a somewhat normal person, whatever that is.

Take care everyone......... let's hope we get a little bit of dry weather.

So very sad.

 

[nootka]

It is SUCH A MESS up along I-5. Hard to comprehend when we're so cut off here.

WE cannot get incoming phone calls and outgoing are very limited and only on cells.

THe Ham radio operators are taking and relaying orders for our hospitals....we have one lane coming in to this county to repair all this damage. I see power trucks, stacks of new poles and so much coming in, but it's going to take a LONG time. They are saying now maybe three weeks.

We got gas today, had to wait in line two hours for twenty gallons plus a truckfull of diesel and some for the boat. They are rationing it now and I believe starting to pump some at Fred Meyer and Safeway.

Good luck everyone w/the cleanup.

So far, I have heard of two deaths in Tillamook south of us, one driver in a flood swept away and one heart attack. I feel that is very lucky considering this was the equivalent of a category 3 hurricane, but lasted much longer than they usually do.

Liz

 

[Marylou]

Finally got our son this evening. They had some minor damage but nothing serious. No power or phone for 2 days. CG station has no computer use. They said they will be on line by tomorrow sometime. Thanks again for all your help earlier.

 

[R Whiteman]

Kim,

No water damage at the fairgrounds in Elma. It is on high ground. But metal roof sections peeled off a couple of the barns. We are out of school another day tomorrow. I'm sure that they are anticipating the high water that should reach us in the next 12 hours or so. Also the road is still closed at Porter due to mud slides. We got out to Olympia today. This morning we had to detour around the massive mud near Summit Lake on highway 8. Saw first hand the destruction to the Ranch Kitchen Barbecue restaurant that has been featured on the national news. Parts of the restaurant traveled across two lanes of freeway to rest in the median. Horrible!!

Some roads are opening back up, but all of West county is still out of power and maybe for the rest of the week due to the destruction of a main Bonneville Power line.

Life's an adventure, isn't it??

Dorothy

 

[MooreAcres]

Checking in here from the Portland area in Oregon.

All is fine, no major damage as far as I know of. Susanne is fine, saw her last night. As is Marie and myself. Not sure about Daryl, but I'm sure he is safe and sound. Luckily we all live on fairly high ground, well not Marie, so didn't get much flooding. Mostly just trees down and ALOT of rain. Got a break today and actually saw a bit of sunshine. Hopefully this mess is behind us all.

Wishing you all the best and hoping the weather didn't take too much of a toll on anyone.

Erin

 

[nootka]

The line for gasoline at the Olney store which is three miles down the road from us. Not many stations have these old style pumps anymore. We were able to get twenty gallons of gasoline and unlimited diesel, enough to fill our truck and several cans to take to the boat. My son Kenny's in the striped shirt...it took an hour or more to get through the line and more people were coming from all over to get this precious resource.

Hwy 202 near Tidepoint restaurant. All of the power poles were blown over, the insulators smashed to powder and the lines tangled in snarls. The road was closed but we had no way else around or over the hill so we had to weave in and out of the downed lines and poles over the road so we could make it to town.

This was one of our neighbor's driveways. You can see the mailboxes somewhere in the jumble of trees. Many of these trees were well over a hundred feet.

Hwy 202 near Tidepoint again, looking towards Astoria again. You can see many of the poles on the right side of the road. These were on the left side of the road right along the bay.

Today some of these had already been replaced by the power crews. these guys are real heroes....

Liz

 

[susanne]

I'm sorry to have taken so long to check in...but between weather, surgeries, and an attempted evaccuation, things have been a bit crazy!

My cataract surgery went well today...it was over before I had barely begun with Mingus stories...

We were unbelievably lucky up here in our hills. We had some strong wind gusts Sunday, so I decided to move the horses down to a friend's boarding stable. Well...we started with Mingus, figuring the others would be more comfortable once they saw he was there. (we have a single horse trailer, so it was one horse at a time). We got him settled in, headed home for the next evaccuee. Our driveway has limited turning room, and unfortunately turning the trailer means backing onto the grass...fine in good weather, but disastrous in a deluge.

So you guessed it -- we got thoroughly stuck. By now it was getting dark, and the wind had stopped. It looked as if we had overacted, so we decided to let Mingus enjoy his night at the fancy horse hotel on his own. We drove the little car over to feed him, tucked the rest into bed here at home, and went in to strip off our soaked clothing.

Midway through Desperate Housewives' tornado episode, the winds came back up and our electricity went out. What irony. I went out several times to check on the horses, where the rain was a veritable monsoon.

Our PUD workers got our power back up at around 3 am, the winds calmed back down (we're in a strange pocket here...most of the big winds seem to miss us) and the horses were just fine.

So here we are with mud pits for corrals (Mingus was happy to get to dry out!), but not even any branches down.

Just a couple of miles up the road, the town of Vernonia has been devastated by flooding and fallen trees...many people were airlifted from their homes by the National Guard (what few are left here in country).

I've kept my computer off for the most part just in case of more outtages, but now everybody is home.

I've spoken to Daryl, and he and his horses and dogs are doing great. Marie is down in the flatlands and her corrals are totally saturated, but she and her horses and dogs are all doing well.

I'm so glad everyone is safe! Thank you all so much for your concern!