We have had wind and rain which means downed trees causing a power outage and a wet living room floor, in our case. Let me explain. These were the straight wind speeds on Saturday, August 29 in the Lower Mainland and beyond.
These are in kilometers so multiply by .6 which means we had straight winds (there was no tornado or other storm to cause these winds) of about 48 mph. And since I live on an inlet that comes right off the ocean, we had something like these wind speeds at my home. The house did shake at times as gusts blew their way by us. The Lower Mainland is a rain forest, meaning we have lots of rain which grows lots of tall trees. When a strong wind blows through it has a nasty consequence of knocking down a few branches and trees as well. And you know what that means, electrical lines get knocked or blown down as well. At one point approximately 700,000 residents were without electricity of Saturday.
I watched this poor black squirrel hang on for dear-life on Saturday in this same tree has it swung back and forth in the wind. It appears he survived, thankfully, since the branch the squirrel was clinging to is about 50 feet off the ground. (Yes, true I don't know it was this squirrel, but it was a black squirrel in the same tree and to my recollection about this size.)
And here are pics of the damage done throughout the region. There was nothing like this in my neighborhood, just lots of leaves and branches. But it helps explain why it took 52 hours to restore our electricity.
We had house guests who arrived about five hours after the outage. So we did our best to do hi-tech camping using the grill for food and candles for light. It helps we have natural gas to heat our water and many local restaurants were open for business. In the end their time with us will give us something unusual to talk about in the future.
With all this wind and rain comes gutter problems as well. We missed the build up of leaves, etc. until there was water inside the house. Paul cleaned the gutter and we moved furniture, put fans on everything and within 24 hours the house is back in order.
What did I learn from all of this? First, I have become very attached to electronic equipment, without the internet and lights it was easy to go to bed at sunset. Second, I live in a world reliant on equipment to do all the work for me. It is nearly impossible to cook, clean, and launder without electricity, at least for me. Third, the guys who worked to restore the electricity and other services have my utmost respect. The conditions were wet and hazardous and yet they worked on and got me my power back as soon as it was possible, I am sure.
Life is now back to normal but I feel less likely to take it for granted, at least for the time being. It is good to be reminded of your privilege. There will be more posts about my knitting and the Ireland/Scotland trip just in another day or so.
These are in kilometers so multiply by .6 which means we had straight winds (there was no tornado or other storm to cause these winds) of about 48 mph. And since I live on an inlet that comes right off the ocean, we had something like these wind speeds at my home. The house did shake at times as gusts blew their way by us. The Lower Mainland is a rain forest, meaning we have lots of rain which grows lots of tall trees. When a strong wind blows through it has a nasty consequence of knocking down a few branches and trees as well. And you know what that means, electrical lines get knocked or blown down as well. At one point approximately 700,000 residents were without electricity of Saturday.
I watched this poor black squirrel hang on for dear-life on Saturday in this same tree has it swung back and forth in the wind. It appears he survived, thankfully, since the branch the squirrel was clinging to is about 50 feet off the ground. (Yes, true I don't know it was this squirrel, but it was a black squirrel in the same tree and to my recollection about this size.)
 |
| Eventually today the squirrel seemed to fall asleep on this branch. |
And here are pics of the damage done throughout the region. There was nothing like this in my neighborhood, just lots of leaves and branches. But it helps explain why it took 52 hours to restore our electricity.
With all this wind and rain comes gutter problems as well. We missed the build up of leaves, etc. until there was water inside the house. Paul cleaned the gutter and we moved furniture, put fans on everything and within 24 hours the house is back in order.
What did I learn from all of this? First, I have become very attached to electronic equipment, without the internet and lights it was easy to go to bed at sunset. Second, I live in a world reliant on equipment to do all the work for me. It is nearly impossible to cook, clean, and launder without electricity, at least for me. Third, the guys who worked to restore the electricity and other services have my utmost respect. The conditions were wet and hazardous and yet they worked on and got me my power back as soon as it was possible, I am sure.
Life is now back to normal but I feel less likely to take it for granted, at least for the time being. It is good to be reminded of your privilege. There will be more posts about my knitting and the Ireland/Scotland trip just in another day or so.
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