Windstorm Hits Seattle

On the evening of December 14th a massive wind strom hit Seattle. We lost our power from about 10:30 pm until 3 pm the next day. The winds were so intense that we decided not to sleep in our bedroom which is right under two giant trees that looked as if they would snap in half at any moment.

Aki's new pre-bed time activity–-walking the walls. This was before we lost our power.

The next morning Aki helps out to clean up all the branches which had come crashing down into our yard.

Power was out but the phone worked. Aki calling in to see what the situation is with getting power restored. More than 50% of the city's power was out.

We walked the neighborhood to see the destruction. In our neighborhood alone there were dozens of trees down and you didn't have to walk far to conclude that we made a good decision not sleeping in the bedroom that sits under the tree in our yard. This house is across the street from us.

Ouch! We saw this truck around the block from our house.

We kept the refrigerator closed since we didn't know when the power would come back on. We finally found a noodle shop open in the afternoon. Apparently everyone else was looking for a meal too as we had to wait 25 minutes to get a table at 2:30 pm. Aki didn't like the fork–-he wanted to use chopsticks like mom and dad. He ended up wearing half the plate of noodles and unfortunately Bikkei and Ishi weren't around to clean up so we had to hose him down in the bathroom. Not feeling clean enough Aki proceeded to run through the fountain outside–-thankfully the heat was back on when we got home.

Driving around our neighborhood you see a lot of trees held up by powerlines. This is on 40th NE on the way to the grocery.

More trees being held up by the powerlines on NE 40th.

We were headed over to a friend's house just off Lake City Way when we found our route blocked by powerlines that didn't hold up the trees.

More closed streets off NE 15th.