Our First Storm

Two weeks after we offically moved into our new house, one of the biggest storms to hit the Oregon coast in over 50 years came in like a hurricane.

About a week ago today (Friday) we began hearing murmurings of a storm a-comin'. Some people said it would snow, some said it would flood, other predicted huge winds. By Saturday it was certain that the storm was gonna be a big one, bringing tons of rain, wind and probably causing flooding and power-outages. Well, being the newbies that we are, we thought "This is fun! Our first big storm!" So we went out and bought a few extra candles, and extra cannister of fuel for our camp stove, and some popcorn.

Satruday night the wind started to blow and rains came down. I had a hard time sleeping because the vine maple outside our bedroom rapped on the wall all night, and with wind whistled through our not-so-air-tight front door. We went to church on Sunday and could hardly open the doors of our car without the wind slamming them back (luckily no fingers were lost!). Everyone in the congregation was pretty nervous about the weather because of the severe flooding that happened last year. That's when we started to get a bit nervous that this storm might a bigger deal than we initially thought.

Sunday evening things started to get crazy. The wind came whooshing at us from the southwest and the rain was blowing sideways. We got out all the flashlights, candles and camping gear we find knowing that the power was going to go out eventually. At 9:30, just when we were getting ready to snuggle into bed, Jeff got up to close the door to our master bathroom because the wind was rushing through the vent and echoing really loud in there. He flipped on the light just to check and make sure there were no leaks. About two seconds later we heard a loud crack, saw a flash of light and then everything went pitch black. We had no idea what had happened, but Jeff assumed that the breaker aross the street from us had blown. We got up to see if we were the only ones who had lost power, and realized that we were probably the last ones who lost it. The entire city was dark. There was not a light to be seen.

That night I probably got only 3-4 hours of sleep. I can't even describe how loud the wind was. Every creak and thump on the roof or walls made me jump because I was sure something was going to fall on us, or be hurled at us, and our bedroom is the west side of the house, which was the most vulnerable part. Twice during the night Jeff got up to check on things outside. At one point he had to tie down the top of the hot tub and towel racks on the side of it. While he was out there the wind gusted and almost knocked me over!

At 4:30 I bolted awake from what I thought was an earthquake. Later we found out that it was probably a gust of wind that peaked at 129 mph. It literally shook the house. Neither of us slept much after that and we finally decided to get up around 6:30 even though it was just barely light outside due to the heavy clouds. It was still windy and rainy, but we could hear cars and people already outside. We didn't venture out for a while because we wanted to make some hot water, light some candles and just watch the storm. A knock on the door at 7:15 got us outside though.

Our neighbor to the north of us came to tell us that his yard was littered with our shingles and that we should probably go take a look at our roof. Sure enough, about 1/4 of our shingles were gone.

Once outside we inspected the rest of damage and realized that loosing a few shingles wasn't so bad. One neighbor lost an entire shed, and one had a huge fir tree fall on their carport and bust their waterline.

Up the street 3 large alders had fallen across the powerlines.

And that's just beginning. We went to camp that morning to check on things and found an almost eerie site. The camp was littered with huge fallen trees and branches. But miraculously everyone was fine, and not a single structure had been damaged (well, the eve of one cabin has a 2 inch hole in in, but other that...). The most significant damage happened over by the Pacific Woods Lodge.

It may not look like much from the pictures but it is going to be weeks, if not months of clean up. But of course the staff and families of Twin Rocks are amazing! Jeff and I spent the night in the Chapman's house with a few others on Monday night because they had a woodstove. We all stayed up until midnight playing games, chatting and watching the news on a t.v. powered by a generator. Tuesday morning everybody was up and working together to clear the trees.

It's been awesome to see the outpouring of neighborly kindness that has resulted from this storm. Even though Tillamook county is rural, sparsely populated, and quite hickish, it is home to some of the most generous, warm-hearted people we've ever met. So many people stopped by just make sure we were ok, and numerous people offered us beds in their homes where they had wood stoves and generators. On Monday afternoon, while the wind was still blowing and rain was still falling, Jeff decided that he needed to put a tarp on the roof where the shingles had blown off to prevent leaking. Well, trying to nail down a 12x12 tarp on a roof by yourself is tough, but when the wind is gusting upwards toward 55 mph, its darn near impossible. Two guys happened to driving by while he was up there offered to help. Later we found out that one of the guys had lost half his windows in the storm and they were on their way to his house to fix those up, but they helped us out for half an hour because that just what neighbors do!

So all this is to say that we survived our first storm, and we wiser for it. When we bought the house, one of our furtures goals was to put a wood stove in...I think that goal has jumped up to the top of our to-do list, because the winter storms are only just beginning.