Posted on 12/15/2006 10:53:30 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
A STORM packing heavy rains and winds gusting at more than 145 km/h slammed into an already-soggy Pacific Northwest, killing three people, officials said overnight.
A Seattle, Washington, woman drowned in her flooded basement, and more than a million electrical customers were left without power in British Columbia, Washington state and Oregon as wind-toppled trees took down utility lines.
The high winds began hitting the Pacific Coast region of Canada and the United States late on Thursday, and had begun to slow as daybreak arrived overnight, but not before gusts of up to 111 km/h were recorded by weather forecasters in Seattle and 95 km/h in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Local media and utilities reported wind gusts of more than 145 km/h. It was the third wind storm to hit some parts of the region this week.
The winds forced officials to close key bridges in Vancouver and Seattle, causing havoc for morning commuters in both cities as some mass transit operations were also disrupted.
Seattle's 41-year-old drowning victim had apparently gone into her windowless basement, but was unable to open a door to get out because of the water pressure, local media reported, quoting a fire department spokeswoman.
Two other deaths in Washington state were blamed on traffic accidents caused by falling trees.
No deaths were reported in British Columbia.
Puget Sound Energy estimated about 700,000 customers, or about two-thirds of its customers had lost power. "The storm's ongoing damage rivals, and may even exceed, the notorious Inaugural Day storm of 1993," The Washington state utility said.
British Columbia Hydro said an estimated 250,000 customers were without power in Vancouver and on Vancouver Island, where crews were still struggling to repair damaged from storms that had hit earlier in the week.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
Category One Hurricane:
Winds 74-95 mph (64-82 kt or 119-153 km/hr). Storm surge generally 4-5 ft above normal. No real damage to building structures. Damage primarily to unanchored mobile homes, shrubbery, and trees. Some damage to poorly constructed signs.
Except from falling trees. Just had a pine tree smash against my garage, and very large one narrowly miss the the house. Winds here on Whidbey Is. are still pretty strong coming in off the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
Here's hoping you have good luck weathering the storm. Batten down the hatches. :-)
Really bad news for the three lost hikers on Mt Hood. 140 mph winds & 18" of snow.
We live on the top floor of a highrise in Belltown and I slept on the floor of our closet with my radio earphones all night!! The toilet water was white-capping! Do you have electricity?
Sounds like you had one helluva night!
I didn't sleep too well either -- hard to do when trees are falling every other minute.
Be careful.
Both of you.....be careful....overcast and foggy south of Long
Beach....must be a huge storm.
I have a friend here in Orlando who is visiting her son and daughter-in-law and the grandchildren who live on Whidby Island. (Her son flies for Alaska Air). I sure hope they're all OK.
I see that some other people from Orlando are lost on Mount Hood somewhere, also. What a mess!
"No power here; I have the generator hooked up."
We still have our generator hooked up at home, here on the North Oregon coast.
Power lines down all over the roads.
Power company has not even pushed them off the road yet.
We are going to be down for a while.
Sure sounds like it.
Just called Puget Power and they said power may not be restored for a week or more in certain areas. Forecast calls for snow showers on Mon. and rain nearly every day for the next week and a half. Could be a lot more flooding.
....and we're not even in winter yet.
"The toilet water was white-capping!"
That's not something you see everyday!
ping...
I'm hoping Sarah and Emily are doing well. They are in Ellensburg,WA and so far not answering their phone. I wonder what the weather is like there? Will look it up.
Also, Linda and Norm are in Seattle. Their home is up a ways but not too far from the ocean.
Power came back on at 4am this morning on North Whidbey....25 hours w/o power seems like we were lucky!
Great to hear. Thanks for the update.
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