Snow & Freezing Rain
Some of you might know I live in the Pacific NW of the United States. About 30 miles south of Seattle in a suburb of Tacoma called Puyallup, about 8 miles east of Tacoma. We were told in advance by the weather service to expect a major snow storm and expect 4 to 8 inches to some of you this is just a dusting. In my neighborhood we were at about 4′ to 6″, but further south about 20 miles that turned into 18″ to 22″. That was Wednesday but Thursday came and we received an 1″ of of frozen rain that brought down thousands of branches and trees in the entire Puget Sound Region leading to Blackouts about 300,000 customers to a population 1.1 million. So about 1 in 4 homes. Does that sound like a lot to you ? Is this what you have in your area ?
So this is how the events unfolded for my family. Myself and my wife are from Montana so snow and cold weather is nothing new us.
Snow started about midnight Tuesday 1/ 17/2012 it put down in my neighborhood about 5″. We enjoyed the snow with our children enjoying snow ball fights, snow man building and fort building.
On Thursday morning we heard noises outside and after taking a closer look we were in an ice storm with branches coming down in our yard, driveway and on our streets. So far all our homes seem to be safe. All day Thursday myself and my neighbors take a stace to protect and look after the safety of our families and our nighbors families as we watch the massive branches come down from these 100 plus year old trees.
Power goes out twice in my neighborhood once for 1/4 of a day and the second for 24 hours. From speaking with some of my clients today on Saturday they have been out from Wednesday morning until now as I write this on Saturday.
I cleared trees away from my driveway and prepared my family for some sort of normancy for the first time on Friday. As I write this about 100 yards from my house the city has set up flashing becons to do not travel up our road.
I only had to use a radio for information, emergency lighting for this situation but who knows out of my supplies what I will need next.
I want to share that you need to be ready for winter storms or any emergency situation no matter where you live and I hope you are becoming prepared and use my website as as tool www.LmdDisasterSurvivalKits.com
Until next time be safe and prepare
