Clobbered...
The wind started picking up around 10PM, a couple really big gusts (50 to 60MPH range) and the lights flickered a few times and then went out.
Down at the store too -- got the generator running and then drove to check on a nearby substation. Lights were on there so I figured it would be an hour or two max.
Sitting at the store and another gust of wind came up -- sustained 60MPH gusts. After this one subsided, I drove out to the substation. Dark. I drove up alongside one power line and saw a couple trees leaning against the wires. Drove West toward Bellingham. Dark.
Hung out until 1:00AM and then bagged the generator and went home to sleep. The power was not going to be restored anytime soon.
The generator only powers the dairy coolers so I figured the potential loss of a couple hundred bucks of milk and eggs was an OK gamble.
Power was finally restored around 8:00AM this morning. We lost a bunch of frozen food as well as the dairy.
There is a local farmer who raises pigs -- we give him all of our out of date produce and we get the occasional package of porky goodness and bliss. His pigs will be very happy!
Back to work...
Posted by DaveH at November 17, 2009 10:57 AM