December 2006:
In the Port of Tacoma, Washington a large old ship, which has served as a wind break for some time was blown out of the way by 70+ mph winds!
The wind then had her way with many of the boats within the marina. Some of the boats were washed ashore and run into the ground, while others sunk within their slips in the marina.
Wow, what a season of windy weather we have had here in the Pacific Northwest in the Puget Sound area! We have been experiencing very windy weather, which came to a climax last Thursday evening, and knocked out our power.
The sky was lit up many times that evening as transformers blew everywhere. Over a million people were left without power, and for some of us it took many days to get it restored. There are some that are still without power!
Tall full grown trees toppled, and fell onto houses, power lines, and crushed some cars. Unfortunately lives were also lost from trees crushing homes, and one woman in Seattle lost her life as mud slide caused a flash flood, which filled her basement. Seattle recorded over 2.17 inches of rain that day.
Between Tacoma and Gig Harbor the Tacoma Narrows bridge was closed and stranded motorists waited in their cars for six hours to cross once the bridge was reopened. North of here the 520 floating bridge was also closed. As a precaution the county opened the draw portion of the bridge to relieve some of the pressure, which is only ever done in the event of severe weather, which this was! As winds whipped through coupled with the force of the water, the 43 year-old bridge didn't fair too well and the force sheared massive bolts off that hold the bridge together, which required immediate repair before they could reopen.
It was the worst storm here in over a decade, and one I won't forget! I feel fortunate that my home was left unharmed by the storm and although we had many fallen tree limbs in our yard and on our roof, we didn't experience any fallen trees on our property.
Wow! What a storm!
