Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Hanukah Storm 2006 Part 2

Only one more couple in our circle of friends is still waiting for power. It turns out that our 65 hours was not too bad when you compared to others. Some areas are not going back up until FRIDAY OR SATURDAY. I cannot imagine having another three or four days to go. I keep thinking over and over how lucky we are to have heat and light again. It reminds me how tough life must be for people who never have the help of electricity to get by.

This morning as I was leaving our neighborhood I saw a huge crane working on levering a massive tree out of a backyard. Fir trees have once again been the bane of our area. I have always believed that the shallow root system of firs was what caused them to fall so easily. However, a biologist recently pointed out to me that many of our native varieties have shallow roots. Therefore, the mystery of why they fall remains. Nevertheless, I do feel vindicated in my refusal to consider houses with tall skinny firs nearby. The realtor thought I was nuts (and I probably am) but it turns out I was right about the trees.

I will never forget the sight of a 50 foot plus fir tree broken off and fallen across the road. The only thing holding it up was the power lines it had crashed through on its way down. There were probably 20 feet of headroom between the tree and the road. Emergency services had placed a "road closed" sign just in front of the tree, but some clever, clever person moved the sign to the side, and everyone was just driving UNDER the tree and the (live?) power lines. Talk about taking your life into your hands. We are very lucky to have come out of this whole thing with so little trouble.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It's back! It's back! Received a call from our nextdoor neighbor early this morning :). Ari stopped by yesterday and emptied out the fridge.