The Storm

Sunday, December 2nd, shall forever live in infamy for being the day the 36 hour hurricane force winds smashed into the northern Oregon coast and wreaked havoc on all aspects of peoples' lives. This was my first major natural disaster and I am glad I survived. It was pretty hairy.

I usually try to keep my writing short and let the pictures speak for themselves, but I feel like I need to provide a little background for those of you who haven't heard what happened up here. I also want to give a disclaimer that in my photos I looked for iconic imagery, not straightforward reporting. I don't have a lot of destruction of people's property and whatnot because I just feel badly showing other people's misfortune. Large companies, the town, and utilities, no problem - but displaying someone's wrecked house for my own agenda just seems jerky. Plus, I just didn't take any that were very good.

So anyway, here's the rundown from the Hills' perspective. After our first church meeting on Sunday our Bishop (church leader) stood and announced that the rest of church was canceled and we should all go home. 10 minutes later, the power went out and the winds kicked up a notch. I went home and my wife and I readied our home as best we could by gathering firewood into the basement, locating flashlights and candles, and feeding ourselves. Well, we fed ourselves first, actually. Then we waited for the power to come back. 2-3 hours later, it did. We had a hot meal, called our families to tell them we were fine, and went about our business. At 10:00 that night, the power went out and it didn't come back for 4 days.

We have frequent high winds here and we're fairly used to it. Storms in the Pacific Northwest usually last around 6 hours and then they blow themselves out and everything is fine. We clean up debris from the streets and continue about our daily lives. This storm just wouldn't stop. Some of the pictures I took were in the height of the storm, but because earlier I had read that the storm should be dying down, I went out anyway . . . with my 2 year old daughter in the car! I got some cool shots, but it was stupid.

It gets dark around 4:30 up here and I never realized just how dark it actually gets until there was no light from anywhere except the occasional passing car. We had a fire in the fireplace and candles burning, but it was dark and lonesome. Lonesome because of the extreme isolation we felt. There were no roads out of town that weren't blocked by trees, floods, or both, and we had no communications by phone, except for within our own exchanges. We could call people in Astoria, but not across the bay to Warrenton because those calls are all routed through Portland, and the main phone line to Portland was broken and buried 8 feet underground, which was itself 8 feet underwater from floods. The cell towers were down too, so we literally had no communications with the outside world for three days. Apparently, some news stations reported on the destruction in other towns on the coast and they said, ". . . but we can't get into Clatsop County and no information can get out. But we do know that they bore the brunt of this storm." Great. Nothing like a little panic to get your parent's heart rates going.

But, despite it all, we survived. I am very lucky and blessed to have the superb family that I do. My wife was (and is) amazing, keeping the kids happy and entertained, then working in the ER all night, then keeping us entertained again the next day. Our house, by the way, has never been cleaner because of her stalwart efforts to keep us all busy. The kids too, were amazing. Little to no fighting or arguing, and the whole event was seen as an adventure not a burden, which made it easier for me to handle. We read books and cuddled in front of the fire, then watched Sesame Street podcasts on the iPod for a treat. The kids were really amazing.

Our house sustained very little damage. All our windows held up, our door didn't leak too badly, and we only lost a few shingles. This is impressive considering that our neighbors across the street lost the eves to their roof, and some of their roof, and a whole lot of insulation that flew through the air like an itchy pink mist. So our hose did well for being 77 years old. We did have our garage/shed get knocked off of its foundation by about a foot, but it was pretty rickety to begin with. The whole thing will probably have to come down and be re-built, but that doesn't seem to be a huge deal, 'cause we don't live in there.

So, all in all, it wasn't too bad of an experience. We now know that we need to be more prepared in some ways (an emergency radio, for one) and that we are pretty resilient in others (Mac N' Cheese is great - all the time!) We also really had a chance to get closer as a family and bond in a way that we rarely get to in today's busy modern world. And that was pretty nice, to really play with the kids, talk with my wife, and enjoy what it really means to be a family.

Then the power came back on and we became zombie slaves to technology once again. Speaking of which, here's my pictures:

I had never seen power lines down like this - especially not with the pole still attached!

This picture is a little dark, but if you look carefully behind the destruction of the power poles you'll see the trees whipping around in the background. Also keep in mind that I took all these pictures in between gusts, so those trees are really relaxing in the just strong winds, not the full on gales they had gotten used to.

This is at a local park - again note the trees in the background - at least a couple more fell before the storm was over.

I like this shot for its simplicity. I like the previous statement for the same reason.

Poor Dairy Queen.

This was a darn big tree! And it was snapped in half like a toothpick! I could not believe it, and I stood there taking the picture!

This shot requires extensive explanation. (This is more reporting on how crazy the storm was than it being a particularly interesting shot) The hole you are looking at was caused by the log sitting directly behind it. The hole is about a foot deep and the log is a 25 foot long tree top that came crashing down, thumped a hole in the ground, then twisted to its final resting place. I'm glad I wasn't in the woods during the storm.

And then my children - they were playing and playing in the dark and I took this shot with the flash - I think they knew it was coming, but it's a heck of a facial expression on my kid anyway!

That's all for now. I'll put some more up later.