Happy 2006 All!! :D

[Baak]

Here's to a FANTASTIC New Year!!


*** Happy 2006 All!! ***

[The Elfoid_TFS]

Aye, have a drink on me. A virtual drink mind, I'm poor.

[Frumius]

Look what fell down in our backyard yesterday morning, New Year's Eve. See photos below. They show a large redwood tree that had been growing right next to our back deck where it lies now after an amazing windstorm yesterday morning. We live with very tall Redwoods, Sitka spruces, and Douglas-firs all around. In the last photo you can see another redwood that fell as well in the back right. Also just outside our fence one of the big Sitka spruce trees fell completely over, and another one is barely standing as it leans against a group of redwoods. Fortunately all fell away from our house.

It was about 9 AM on the rainy/windy morning of New Year's Eve that the wind suddenly whipped up into a frenzy with incredible ferocity. High wind is always a little scary, but this was an amazingly powerful display. As my wife and I contemplated the possibility of going somewhere else to wait it out, a huge, deep WHUUMP that we could easily both hear and feel shook us. We looked in back and saw that a redwood had fallen just outside our fence. Now we were really talking about getting out of there. When an even larger house-shaking WHUUMP alerted us to the fact that the largest redwood of the lot, the 31" diameter one in the photos below, one that was right up against our deck, had just slammed into the ground, we decided to flee.

A hurried call to my brother confirmed that they'd be expecting us shortly. Very shortly. We grabbed the cat and ran for the car.

The driving wind and rain kept us to about 40 MPH on 101 heading north toward Arcata. It was a battle to keep the car going straight. We saw across the highway that one of the eucalyptus trees lining the road had fallen, smashing a pickup truck that seemed to have been parked in the wrong spot. About half way to Arcata we noticed that the oncoming traffic up ahead was behaving strangely. The distance, wind and rain kept visibility low, but we could see cars stopping, turning around against traffic, and crossing the dividing line. As we got closer we could see that the waves from the bay were being forced over the bank and onto 101! Lots of water was pouring over the southbound lanes and dumping into the center divider between them and our northbound lanes. The CHP was only just arriving. They were trying to keep people from getting that far down the road, making them turn around and onto the northbound lanes at the Bayside Cutoff. As we continued we saw that much of the rest of the way to Arcata, the waves were coming over the bank and onto 101. Up by the first Arcata exits a CHP car was zigging and zagging in order to keep cars from going south of Arcata at all on 101. We forged ahead, pushing through the wind and rain, feeling semi-safe on our side of the freeway.

At the Giuntoli exit, where we were getting off, there seemed to be another event in progress. Cars didn't seem to be going around the roundabout that one enters upon leaving the exit. We were many cars back in a very slow moving line. Up at the roundabout it looked like people were doing their own things again. Some pulled over, some turned the wrong way against the traffic, some got onto the mid part of the roundabout to get by those still undecided. We sat tight; I figured I'd see what to do when we got there. What we found was that a power line had fallen across the lanes and people were deciding whether to try to scrape by it, go around it, go against traffic, or sit and think. We had all wheel drive, so I drove through a gap in the line of cars, powered up onto the middle of the roundabout and drove across it to the lanes we needed.

We only had to take one more detour before getting to my brother's--another power line had fallen across the road by Mad River Hospital, causing us to seek back street avenues to my brother's family's house.

We came home yesterday evening after things had calmed down. The power was out, so we had a very mellow New Year's Eve. Then this morning, New Year's Day, we awoke at 4 AM to more howling winds. Thinking of the trees still standing, our reaction was, "We're outta here!" We grabbed some stuff and headed out (backup hard drive and CD's/DVD's of my images, some camera gear). We spent most of the morning with my brother and his family again. Now the wind is calm, though the skies are grey, and we are back at home, with the power on.

Hoping your new year is exciting, but not harrowing!





I just now heard the DJ on the radio, Mike at KHUM.com, calling for storm photos, so I sent the above photos to him a couple minutes ago.

[vinylrake]

wow frum, sounds like you had an exciting (if unexpected and slightly harrowing) adventure - glad you're all safe and sound.

After I knew you were safe (by the fact that you were writing the note) my next thought was "wow, redwood and spruce trees fell down? Imagine how much great lumber and wood for craft projects you could get from that!"

"oh yeah, those old storage shelves in the basement they're redwood..."

[Baak]

So that's all that kept you from playing Saturday night?!?





j/k - we didn't play Saturday night!

Very happy you and your family are safe and sound. Sorry to hear you lost the trees, but very glad they fell the right way.

[Two Saks]

Yow!!! That is scary, very glad you, family and house are OK. Dang, 31" redwood?? They are very anchored trees! Must have been one hell of a storm. The SF Bay Area was hit pretty hard too (I'm on the SF Peninsula) and there have been lots of eucalyptus trees down (killed a person in fact, he was out checking out the storm damage by a creek), but they are notorious for not standing up in storms. I've always wondered what it sounds like when a pretty good sized tree bites it. It must be terrifying and awesome. Hopefully you will not be taking any early morning dashes to your brothers again!