Missing a few boys tonite

[turnkey4099]

Here in SE WA. It hit about 10 pm and is still roaring along. Estimate last night pretty close to the prediction - sustained 40mph with gusts to 60. Right now probably about 25/30 mph sustained. Went to bed a 2 with power still on but lit candles jusst in case. Just as I reached the bedroom the power died. Was back when I got up at 7.

Not hearing much on the scanner in this area. A few trees down but haven't heard of any major damage. Power lines down in spots. I have to make a trip to town later and will cruise around to see if someone needs help.

We just got done with a bad windstorm a few weeks ago. I lost (well not damaged but torn down), my wrought iron railing (finally got it back up yesterday) and 1/2 of a huge blue spruce. My fault, it developed 2 co-dominant stems and I didn't notice it at firts and when I did, I didn't remove one. At least it didn't ruin the tree, will be a bit thin on that side but I hope it will fill out.

Harry K

 

[Cut4fun]

Just seen the troubles on the national news. You guys will be in our prayers, It looks bad on tv, houses smashed by those BIG not punky wood trees.

Been there done that 100mph winds. Good luck and keep the familys safe, buildings and cars can be replaced.

 

[wagonwheeler]

Best Wishes and Stay Safe

Lot's of people do stupid things as they try to 'help' in times like these - so stay clear of 'em and double check your steps! Ya' gotta be able to tell us all the stories later!

I can appreciate what you're going through...it only took this 80ft pine fractions of a second to do $80k damage to my folks house a few years back...and it was fortunate my mother had was not at the kitchen counter which is her usual 'hangout'...

Chaser

 

[SawWitch]

I just tried Jeff on his phone and got his voice mail... If he calls me back I'll let you guys know.
...

I am anxiously waiting for news on Jeff......

We are quite lucky here, as we never have storms like the one described here......

.....but now and then we have quite stormy weather here also - some years ago the roof was blown off my brothers shop, and hit the roof of his home, but no damage that the insurance company didn't cover. Lots of trees were blown over close to the cottage also, but mostly willows - not birches.

And the weather is changing - it is getting warmer, and more stormy, all the time here in Norway, and the extreme tides happen more often than they used to.:censored:

The changes are probably for the most part due to the extreme pollution in Eastern Europe.... :angry2: :jester:


...and I guess that most of us remember "Gudrun", that hit Southern Sweden some time ago.......

 

[Oregon_Rob]

Lost some nice trees last night

Just went for a walk and it looks like we lost 10-12 nice Doug Firs. Bad part is most of them are down in a pretty good hole and fell on the neighbors property. These are going to be tuff to get out, one is probably 30 DBH and 100+ feet tall. Neighbor on the other side has a skidder, so will have to see what he wants to yard them out.

 

[Lakeside53]

What a day... No power.. and in our neck of the woods, 4-5 days at the earliest. Several miles of line to be reconstructed, with a lot of the poles smashed. Natural gas is ok, phone works, dsl works, cell down (cells site out of power), water for 5 -8 hours a day, so it could have been much much much worse.

No Cable TV!!!!! Oh no.....

Hmmm, 5 days at 10 gallons gas per day (shut off at night)..... oh well..

In our neighborhood of 50 homes:

-5 took direct hits from trees, 3 serious damage. All require crane removal.
- Most had trees in the yard, and across driveways.
- Community roads blocked in many places.
- Hundreds of trees down in the forest.

Outside of our community most of the secondary roads are still partially blocked and several main roads shut down in sections. Some detours are 5 miles...

I just got back in - we have all the trees off the community roads, all driveways "clear", most of the generators running (damn homeowners with old gas!), and a organized effort to look after the old and the useless (not the same, trust me..).

I let my neighbor take all the dry wood she wanted, and got a bottle of scotch in return. I refused, but she insisted, and was nearly 5pm, so...

Some pics:


150 foot fir... big damage to the house.

Nasty biforcated Hemlock - 28 dbh (off pic). I'm on the right.

2 firs

Typcial work - road kill tree.

Homeowner watching me..

 

[Lakeside53]

Couple more - air burst...

Hemlock - 20 inch, sound tree, snapped off 12 feet up.

Alder - 16 inch... I heard that one go.. in my wood about 100 feet from the house

 

[smithie55]

You all definantely got it worse farther north then we did here on the central Oregon coast.
Glad your all OK.

 

[timberrat]

storm

sh@t:jawdrop: glad we still have a few loggers with saws. thank the stars above no one was kill or injured from those trees hitting houses.thats why stihl chainsaw are the best:hmm3grin2orange: if i had to live their i would slepp with my timber saw
good luck and stay safe.

 

[SawTroll]

....
Glad your all OK.

We still don't know about Jeff (Fishhuntcutwood).......

I am worried about him, but hopefully he is just out having fun, doing cutting and cleanup......

 

[disandat]

We just got our power on at about 4:30pm here where I am on Camano Island. Whidbey is just West of us and is pretty much unprotected by the big winds.

I started home last night around 9:00pm. Was working late until the power went off on the south end. On my way home it was like a domino effect...as I drove, all the lights were going out.

Some parts of Camano are still out of power and we could still loose it again here. Tomorrow is another day with cooler temps and possibly snow. I feel for you guys who are out in it. My job is hardwood floors so mostly inside work. But I do carry a saw (now my 028 Super) just so I can get home at night.

 

[Lakeside53]

We still don't know about Jeff (Fishhuntcutwood).......

I am worried about him, but hopefully he is just out having fun, doing cutting and cleanup......

There's a good chance he's been called to do his day job...

 

[lumberinspector]

Glad to hear all you guys are safe. Hopefully someone will hear from Jeff. Neat pics Lakeside.

 

[chowdozer]

Went to work, no power in the windtunnel today so... I spent the day down in McKenna, Roy and Yelm cutting up trees in driveways of friends. It's funny how they underestimated the size of trees. So I went with the 034 and 011. When I got there I realized I should have taken the 056 too. The little xb can only hold so much. Wish I had my camera, because the funniest thing I saw all day was a guy in a Geo Metro beside the highway... loading firewood in the rear hatch!!?? Tomorrow I may take a drive back there and if I do, I'll take my camera. I have never seen so many trees on powerlines. There were no work crews in sight as I suspect they are trying to get power to the high density areas, stoplights and business' first. All the free firewood you want beside the road too. If my truck weren't already loaded, I could have filled it past the sideboards 4 or 5 times at least.

 

[NWCS]

my power has been out since 5:30pm thurs. being on a well makes it even worse! posted a bit in my forum about it.

heres a news link on the situation
http://www.kirotv.com/weather/10544585/detail.html

520 floating bridge damage:
http://www.kirotv.com/video/10545156/index.html

 

[SawTroll]

There's a good chance he's been called to do his day job...

True, of course.....

 

[GASoline71]

We still don't know about Jeff (Fishhuntcutwood).......

I am worried about him, but hopefully he is just out having fun, doing cutting and cleanup......

I still have not heard from Jeff either. He is a Coast Guard Rescue guy... so he might be called in to do that. Plus we have a lot of cell phone towers throughout the Western half of Washington State that are knocked out of power. I will try the CG Station where he works to see if I can get word.

I woke up this morning to come to work and flipped the lightswitch in the bathroom out of curiosity... and bing! LIGHTS! So some of the power has been restored to the Island i live on.

Great picture show Andy. I had some homeowners take some pics of me over the last couple of days. I'll see if I can get some from them to put up here. I helped a neighbor with a 33" dbh Doug Fir that fell right next to their house. Tre was well over 100 feet tall. some of the brances came through a window... so I helped them tarp up that side of the house to keep the rain out.

Also... I bet that Alder sounded like a cannon shot Andy. Those things make a hell of a noise when they explode like that!

Gary

 

[SawWitch]

Is the weather still really bad over there?

I have been conserned about you all, and hope you are all OK - I guess you all are, but we still don't really know how Jeff is, but hopefully he is just busy......

How did the cleanup you went out for go, Andy and Gary????

Dean, did you get home safely???

...someone else????

 

[Canyon Angler]

Wow, sorry to hear about all the carnage, glad to hear (I hope) that everyone's OK. (Anybody raise FHCW yet?)

Sounds like there's plenty of wood to be sawn up!

 

[Lakeside53]

Is the weather still really bad over there?

I have been concerned about you all, and hope you are all OK - I guess you all are, but we still don't really know how Jeff is, but hopefully he is just busy......

How did the cleanup you went out for go, Andy and Gary????

Dean, did you get home safely???

...someone else????

The weather is real nice now, but cold...

Yesterday wasn't really cleanup - just emergency removal of the blocked roads and evaluation of the house hits. The real work start today - and will last a month or more.

We still have over 600,000 people without power, the nearest gas station with power to me is 12 miles way and the lines yesterday were 2-3 hours long. There are 80 main power feeder lines in the central Puget sound area, and as at this morning, only 18 were working.


It's cold (for here) with temps below freezing). Most people are not prepared and many have no alternative form of heat. 60 were taken to hospital last night with carbon monoxide poisoning - heating/cooking inside with a BBQ.


My saws are filthy, chains all beat up (cutting on asphalt sucks!), I hit a barbed wire fence with one, and a chain link fence with another.. grrrr,,, Need to get the chain grinder and lights connected to the generator... not going to make up any new chains for this type of work, and all my neighbors have dull or busted chains. I bet 50% of them couldn't get their saws started yesterday (a blessing in disguise for most of them...).

With all the power out, burglaries of houses and shops have soared. Some guys are just scum.

The next problem will be the failing generators - running 16 hours a day... many aren't going to make it. Even the concept of adding crankcase oil escapes many.