No Electricity In Seattle

Wondering why you didn’t hear from me on Friday night? Like most of the greater Seattle area, we lost all electricity at 1:30AM in the storm of the decade:

Residents of the Pacific Northwest struggled to stay warm Saturday after the worst windstorm in more than a decade knocked out power to more than 1.5 million homes and businesses and killed at least six people. Nearly 700,000 customers in Washington and Oregon still had no power Saturday, and utilities said some might have to wait into next week for their lights to go back on.

Lucky for us, our new house has gas fireplaces, and gas-heated water (which was running smoothly). Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and part of Monday - my new bride and I were completely without electricity:

The nasty weather, which kept thousands of Seattle-area homes in the dark over the weekend, was a boon to hotels, where local residents without power checked into warm rooms. Local malls and Starbucks stores that didn’t experience significant power losses also said business was booming.

Lucky for us (and our dogs, Wicket and Pixie), we had enough food and water to stay at home. We all just huddled around our Den’s fireplace and waited for what seemed like weeks for the power to come back. It could have been a lot worse:

The death toll rose to 12 Monday from a storm that knocked out power to more than a million homes and businesses, with health officials warning of a “carbon monoxide epidemic” from indoor use of generators and charcoal grills. Four more people were found dead Monday from apparent carbon monoxide poisoning. Chief Russ Pritchard of the North Highline Fire District said the four were found in a home near the White Center neighborhood south of Seattle, along with a fifth person who was taken to a hospital in critical condition. The victims had been running a generator indoors.

Since we had just moved in, our emergency supplies were rather paltry - but a generator will be installed as soon as we can get our hands on one. I’m sure other families in the area will be investing in similar supplies in the near future. I’m happy to have my family and friends safe, and I’m thrilled to be able to check email again - living under the warm glow of a light bulb.

[tags]electricity, wind storm, seattle, electric power, emergency supplies, disaster preparedness[/tags]