Over the years just a slight breeze would send us into the dark for a few hours to a couple of days. For some reason we haven't lost power as often now as we did then and we also have a generator we've only used maybe a handful of times. Dad purchased it almost 8 years ago. I think we could have benefitted more while we lived in the other house and we were little.
Tuesday night, early Wednesday morning was the first time the wind was that bad. It woke me out of a pretty deep sleep. I looked out the window and the wind had to be going at least 55 mph. I was terrified. It sounded bad but the sight was worse. I imagined all of them breaking, snapping in half and hitting the house causing a lot of damage. It started to die down around 3 and I tried to ignore the awful outside and try to fall asleep again, 6:30 a.m. came too fast.
I got up after an "in and out" sleeping cycle when my alarm went off. I got ready for work, grabbed all of the stuff I had set aside for our Christmas party at work, ate my cereal and was off. As I headed towards Rainier I noticed this really big gray-green colored cloud. That doesn't look good. Last year when the weather looked like that we had an F1 tornado/waterspout out in the Nisqually Refuge area. As I got into Rainier, I saw a huge bolt of lightning in the distance. Oh crap! I never have experienced a thunder storm during the winter let alone December. We usually get this type of weather in the spring and early fall.
I made my way towards Tumwater, via Rainier Road (this section of land is owned by the military therefore, cell reception is pretty poor) and I got into the area where there were a lot of trees. At this point it wasn't raining. When I went around the corner, after seeing multiple flashes in the sky and some rumbling, all of a sudden hail just started slamming down on me and the other cars on this stretch of road. I saw break lights and several people who had pulled over because they couldn't see. I continued on. All of a sudden the sky broke loose and hail came down as hard as it could. I am glad we don't live in an area that produces huge pieces of hail the size of quarters or bigger. It would have ruined my car in less than a second. It was a slow commute through this area.
As soon as I got to the guard rail area of Rainier Road, I heard a huge crack and everything around me got really bright. I think a bolt of lightening just struck the ground not too far from where I was. I really wasn't scared but my body shook from being startled by it. It was so loud it trumped my radio and I had that up somewhat loud. That was the craziest thing I've seen especially for December.
We had a few calmer nights but it rained a lot. Many places were flooded, parts of Hwy 12 towards White Pass were closed due to a section of road being washed out, Ben didn't have to go to work on Thursday because the Chehalis River flooded and most of the roads out that way were closed. There was a landslide down by Woodland that closed one lane of I-5 North indefinitely. On Thursday we had reports of a EF1 Tornado touching down in Battleground. My aunt lives there and so does Brenda and Ray. Everyone was fine but it still baffles me that we are having weather that comes around usually in the spring and fall. (Below is a picture Ray took at the tail end of the tornado that touched down near their house.)
Some more damage caused by the tornado. Pictures are from KGW-TV (Portland, Ore.)
A photo of the landslide near Woodland I-5 Northbound. Picture is from WSDOT.
The third part of the storm is suppose to be done Saturday evening and we would revert back to our normal December weather. We may even get some snow come Christmas time.
Next Adventure: TBA
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