The JobGals have had a tough few days in Seattle. Since we both live and work on the eastside of the city, our areas were hit pretty darn hard by the windstorm that struck on Thursday night. We woke up on Friday morning to no power and cold and the devastation of downed trees, destroyed homes and panicked people at the markets and gas stations.
Both Gret and I were pretty well stocked with food and fleece to keep warm and fed during the outage. We also had great friends and neighbors help us out with rides and keeping each other company until our power came back on.
Mr. Zoë and I went out on Friday to survey the house and make sure there wasn’t any damage to our property and check on our neighbors. We drove down the road a bit and were shocked to see how powerful the storm actually had been. There were enormous trees toppled over the roads making them impassable. Even worse, some of our neighbors in the community across the street had suffered severe damage to their homes – some destroyed almost completely.
We were very lucky considering the circumstances. We have a gas fireplace and gas stove so we were able to keep warm and cook some of the food in our fridge and freezer before it spoiled. In fact, we had a lovely first night of Hanukah making latkes and brisket and inviting over some friends to share our provisions. It’s kinda interesting that there we were celebrating the festival of lights and the meaning behind Hanukah and we ourselves were without light!
As the novelty and nostalgia of the power outage was wearing thin (and just as my cranky pregnant cold self was starting to feel pretty blue after 36 hours with no power) there was a great whoosh noise and our digital clocks clicked on mid-morning on Saturday. We couldn’t have been happier and actually did a little dance of joy in the kitchen.
At the same time, we are exceedingly lucky as I said. Gret’s power just came on last night so she is enjoying her first day in many of warmth and light. There are also still hundreds of thousands of people still without power in our area – some facing their fifth night without heat or electricity. As it gets colder people are starting to rely on warming centers and shelters to provide essentials. Over Redmond today, there was a thick pall of wood smoke covering the low lying areas as many are relying on fireplaces for warmth.
What has struck me most is how differently people were impacted. Neighbors living right across the street or down the road didn’t experience any disruption to their power service at all and again some are still going without. We’ve reached out to as many of our friends and neighbors as possible offering a warm place to stay and some hot showers. But the best thing is that we’ve seen ordinary people doing extraordinary things and offering help to others they barely know.
I’m hoping that those without power today don’t have to wait much longer. I’m also thinking about (and giving thanks to) the hard working folks who’ve been putting in long hours to get everyone back online. This certainly has been one crazy winter for Seattle and we’re only half way through!
Needless to say it may be another few days until we are fully back to normal. Right now, we’re okay and just getting ourselves back together…