Winter "Storm" 2006: Surveying the Damage

It was no Hurricane Katrina, but last night's wind storm did cause significant damage around here. From about dinner time on, strong wind gusts blew through and knocked out power all over the state. Our lights flickered and we actually lost power for about 15 minutes, just enough to mess up our clocks and short circuit our microwave. Fortunately, we turned off the computers before we lost power.

When I was taking Natalie to school this morning I noticed our neighbor's garden gazebo was twisted like a pretzel. You can see some of their planters were knocked over too. These things are heavy!

Here is a small tree that went down on our road.

Our back yard got tossed around a bit. The heavy reel and pool blanket got blown into the pool. Thank goodness the pool cover was on! The wind also tipped over several patio chairs, the market umbrella and the barbecue. It could have been much worse!

My heart goes out to those three climbers who are stuck up on Mt. Hood. If they are still alive, they are miserable! Blizzard like conditions, freezing cold wind and snow. I hope they can be rescued now that the wind has died down.