Windstorm December 14-15th, 2006.
I have pictures of damage done in the Gold Bar area during the latest storm we've had this Fall. This is by far the most active fall season I've seen in almost a decade.
During this storm, winds gusted up to 100mph in Shoreline, Wa. In Gold Bar they reached 130mph. The Washington State coast recorded a gust of 137mph. The Storm peaked between 1am and 3am. During it's peak time a record 1.5 million people in the puget sound region were without power. 4 people were killed during the storm. Before the main storm front even hit us, thursday evening the outer edges of the storm brought thunderstorms through the region that dumped almost 2 inches of rain in less than an hour. This caused flash floods through out the region, at one time I-5 in Downtown Seattle was closed due to deep standing water. Land slides were showing up everywhere. Power was being knocked out by lightening. When I herd that the storm wasn't even expected to hit until about midnight I knew this was not going to be a normal Mid Pacific cyclone.
They reported that the low pressure center and the high pressure to the south were intensifying even as the storm made land fall.
My personal experience of the storm was this. The lightning and heavy rain in the early evening I could deal with. Our power went out at about 7:30pm and came back on around 8:15pm. At about 9pm it went back out for about an hour. Came back on just after 10pm and was on until about 1:30am. I fell asleep on the couch with the wood stove going and the lanterns at low staff incase power went out again. Well I was woken up by a large thud shaking the whole cabin and rain falling on me. The wind had gotten so strong at this point that it ripped the 2x5 foot skylight in my celine wide open. It was normally open able but it had latches holding it down. Then power went out. I was one of the lucky ones. Power was back on by around 4am and one of my friends came up to fix my skylight sense I could not bring my self the courage to go on the roof during that storm with many tall large trees around. One tree had already fallen accross my driveway narrowly missing my cars and shed.
Others were not so lucky. Today over 100,000 people still don't have power and many trees came down. A lot of houses got distroyed by fallen trees. My neighbors down the street were one of the unlucky ones. They are all un injured and safe. But in one big gust at around 2am 16 douglas fir and Western cedars came down at once, and these are not small trees, almost all were old growth trees. Only 4 of them up-rooted, the rest snapped at the trunk. 3 hit one house and 2 hit the other house. Seeing these fallen trees in person was just incredible. Some of the tree trunks were 3-4 feet wide and they were just snapped like twigs. The sheer power that had to of been behind these winds is just incredible, I can't even imagine it.
I've seen windstorms in the past breifly this strong, but not long enough to cause this much damage. Most lasted 15-20 minutes. This storm was at this strong intensity of 90mph gusts and higher for atleast 4 hours. It's been over a decade sense a windstorm has had me hiding in the middle of the house away from any windows or outside walls. I took pictures of the damage and have them posted below.
This is the 60ft tree that came down in my front yard.
A bunch of fallen Red Alders in my grandparent's back yard.
This tree fell on this house from 100 feet above. It came off a tree that split into a y shape in natural growth. One half snapped off during the gust and landed on the house and ground.
2 trees, one a Western Cedar, and the other a Douglas Fir, came down side by side and hit the side of my neighbor's house here.
This is the back deck of my neighbors house, you see the 2 trees in the previous picture, along with a tree stump of a very large tree that snapped in the wind. This trunk was about 3 feet in diameter.
Another house on my street, next to the previous house, hit hard with a 180 ft tall douglas fir.
Down the river bank, about 50 feet down, this tree up-rooted off the side of the bank, you can see branches from the tree sticking out of the water in the river.
The remains of a 75watt sodium vapor yard light fixture.
This is Gerrie and Larry, my neighbors down the street. They are the owners of the house that had the 3 trees hit it. Amazingly it only suffered roof and gutter damage. Some sheet rock on the inside of their house has many cracks in it due to the whole wall and corner of the house getting pounded down by the tree. But only suffered one hole punched through by a large branch stub from the tree.
Tree service guy taking a break from removing this 20 ton tree from the roof of this house.
During this storm, winds gusted up to 100mph in Shoreline, Wa. In Gold Bar they reached 130mph. The Washington State coast recorded a gust of 137mph. The Storm peaked between 1am and 3am. During it's peak time a record 1.5 million people in the puget sound region were without power. 4 people were killed during the storm. Before the main storm front even hit us, thursday evening the outer edges of the storm brought thunderstorms through the region that dumped almost 2 inches of rain in less than an hour. This caused flash floods through out the region, at one time I-5 in Downtown Seattle was closed due to deep standing water. Land slides were showing up everywhere. Power was being knocked out by lightening. When I herd that the storm wasn't even expected to hit until about midnight I knew this was not going to be a normal Mid Pacific cyclone.
They reported that the low pressure center and the high pressure to the south were intensifying even as the storm made land fall.
My personal experience of the storm was this. The lightning and heavy rain in the early evening I could deal with. Our power went out at about 7:30pm and came back on around 8:15pm. At about 9pm it went back out for about an hour. Came back on just after 10pm and was on until about 1:30am. I fell asleep on the couch with the wood stove going and the lanterns at low staff incase power went out again. Well I was woken up by a large thud shaking the whole cabin and rain falling on me. The wind had gotten so strong at this point that it ripped the 2x5 foot skylight in my celine wide open. It was normally open able but it had latches holding it down. Then power went out. I was one of the lucky ones. Power was back on by around 4am and one of my friends came up to fix my skylight sense I could not bring my self the courage to go on the roof during that storm with many tall large trees around. One tree had already fallen accross my driveway narrowly missing my cars and shed.
Others were not so lucky. Today over 100,000 people still don't have power and many trees came down. A lot of houses got distroyed by fallen trees. My neighbors down the street were one of the unlucky ones. They are all un injured and safe. But in one big gust at around 2am 16 douglas fir and Western cedars came down at once, and these are not small trees, almost all were old growth trees. Only 4 of them up-rooted, the rest snapped at the trunk. 3 hit one house and 2 hit the other house. Seeing these fallen trees in person was just incredible. Some of the tree trunks were 3-4 feet wide and they were just snapped like twigs. The sheer power that had to of been behind these winds is just incredible, I can't even imagine it.
I've seen windstorms in the past breifly this strong, but not long enough to cause this much damage. Most lasted 15-20 minutes. This storm was at this strong intensity of 90mph gusts and higher for atleast 4 hours. It's been over a decade sense a windstorm has had me hiding in the middle of the house away from any windows or outside walls. I took pictures of the damage and have them posted below.
This is the 60ft tree that came down in my front yard.
A bunch of fallen Red Alders in my grandparent's back yard.
This tree fell on this house from 100 feet above. It came off a tree that split into a y shape in natural growth. One half snapped off during the gust and landed on the house and ground.
2 trees, one a Western Cedar, and the other a Douglas Fir, came down side by side and hit the side of my neighbor's house here.
This is the back deck of my neighbors house, you see the 2 trees in the previous picture, along with a tree stump of a very large tree that snapped in the wind. This trunk was about 3 feet in diameter.
Another house on my street, next to the previous house, hit hard with a 180 ft tall douglas fir.
Down the river bank, about 50 feet down, this tree up-rooted off the side of the bank, you can see branches from the tree sticking out of the water in the river.
The remains of a 75watt sodium vapor yard light fixture.
This is Gerrie and Larry, my neighbors down the street. They are the owners of the house that had the 3 trees hit it. Amazingly it only suffered roof and gutter damage. Some sheet rock on the inside of their house has many cracks in it due to the whole wall and corner of the house getting pounded down by the tree. But only suffered one hole punched through by a large branch stub from the tree.
Tree service guy taking a break from removing this 20 ton tree from the roof of this house.
posted by Carl at 3:14 PM
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