Storm Coverage

wasn't so much in parts of the country. Here at the Oregon coast & other parts were hit with winds at 120 plus.. but averaged out to about 95 I think. Anyhoo- it was one storm followed by another that left us with no power for 6 days- no phone for 2- no school for 5- no highway into any major city for 2. I have to say we were lucky compared to some places that had floods that came with the wind and rain. Vernonia Oregon- which is about an hour east of us. They have had MAJOR damage. You can click on to see some of the damage. We had rain & wind.. and it was pretty wicked. It started Sunday Dec 1st & went into Monday. Dan & I thought for sure the siding on the house would be gone.. and I was sure that we'd have no roof. I thought the entire house was just going to pick up & fly away like in the Wizard of Oz. Thank goodness we don't have any trees directly around us. Trees came up root & all in a lot of places. Businesses were closed fro days.. but one restaurant got smart last year.. Bigfoots- Jack the owner- said he wasn't going to go through that again & installed a big generator. After his sales last week- I think others will follow. Dan & I were close to being called in to help- however- no phone service solved that! Dan- Cameron & I survived just fine. When Monday AM rolled around we just had to remember what camping was like. We have a gas stove top- thank god for that. Then we actually went out to see how Dan's mom was- she was fine. The winds were still going- but not as bad. We played games throughout the day. Did some reading. Then at 4PM it's dark out. Made dinner best I could with the light we have. Must of been fine. Then with the portable DVD player we had we all got into bed & watched a movie.. so here we are the 3 of us huddled around this little DVD player watching "Elf" . Day 2 comes.. and now its' easier than day 1. This time Cam can go play with the neighbor girl- Alana. So things are getting easier.. but still no phone service. So family & friends have no idea what is going on & I don't think realize until Tuesday (day 2) that we actually had been hit pretty hard. We get word that the cell phones will work if hit "the cove" so we head to the cove & finally can call family & friends to let them know we are fine. Dan's sister Stephanie didn't realize how bad it was. So as each days go by it gets easier. We were able to shower- we have gas so that helped- gas fireplace kept us warm as well. Our neighbors by day 2 loaned us lantern & by Thursday we were offered a generator to use from some friends in Jewell who had gotten power. so now things aren't so bad. And guess what is on the list of things to purchase this coming year? Gas turned into gold here.. one station had a line of cars a mile or so long.. charging a whopping $5.00 a gallon. Ice was gold as well & lucky for us we got some from Bigfoots. Nice to have friends in the right places at times! Plus scored 3 bags from our friends in Jewell. We had friends in Portland who wanted to bring it out- but the main highway in had a sink hole plus a lot of trees were down & some ready to still come down. We heard that we had over 600 power workers working on the lines 24 hours a day.. from Utah & Idaho..and we are so thankful for them & the work they did. Friday afternoon comes along & we get power!! It was a happy happy joy joy time. Yet in some sense bitter sweet. We had a routine now after all those nights- huddle together in bed & watch a movie. Guess just something we'll do more of. We had some good family time & Cameron was a trooper. He loved the generator.. he was able to play his PS2 for a hour or so. It was all so strange though.. we were cut off from the world. really- with no phone- no paper- no power- nothing. World war 3 could have begun & we would have known NOTHING. All in all we are lucky. A lot of trees are gone in the area.. a lot of people became closer to their neighbors. And now a lot of scrapping to do about the 6 days we endured.. which really were just fine.

The photos above: I took a few this AM - the 3rd from the right is from all the trees that had to be cut from power lines- driveways- phone lines- roads.. that is where they have been dumped from just Gearhart- the town we live in. The last one is from the golf course.. just to show you that the big trees just came up root and all.