so are this what the windstorms are like? (Duvall: power lines, house)

[Derk]

wow, i moved here in April and i have to say, a lot of you guys mentioned that there was a windstorm last year that knocked out power to like a million people or something like that.

Well anyway, i just got home from staying after school and i have to say... wow. the power went out for a couple minutes and its all over the news. was the one last year like this?

[LordBalfor]

Yeah, this was a mild windstorm - especially compared to last years'

We were the ONLY members of our extended family (my side and my wife's side) to have power after that monster blew through so we had 6 extra people staying with us full-time and another half-dozen coming by for hot showers and warm meals. Last ones finally were able to go home after a full week. That one was a doozy.

Ken

[LordBalfor]

PS - the roads out to Duvall looked like a war zone after last year's storm and were essentially unpassable for 3-4 days because of so many downed trees.

Ken

[mayfair]

Yup- this was not a bad storm. The news really hyped it, though!

[GR8Scott]

I saw a report on Fox News today. They showed the 520 bridge (I had just asked about that somewhere on this board). Did someone say that a truck was blown off that bridge last year? It looked pretty fierce on the news today.

[scirocco22]

As I was explaining in an earlier post today, GR8Scott, the winds on the Evergreen bridge are monitored very closely and the bridge will be closed and the drawspan opened once sustained winds reach a certain point.

//www.city-data.com/forum/1766462-post25.html

It very routine for the waves to be blown over the roadway during gusts of wind. Your windshield wipers will be going full speed even when it's not raining when the waves are blowing over the deck.

[sean98125]

This was a pretty typical fall windstorm. You just come to expect a good wind storm or two in November. Wind storms like yesterday don't usually cause much damage, but if you combine a windstorm with a few days of rain before it you wind up with a lot more damage. The trees around here have fairly shallow root systems, so it doesn't take much more than a strong sustained wind and soggy ground to send them over.

If you ever get out into the woods in Western Washington, you'll see trees on the ground just about everywhere you look. That's a pretty good indication that a)we get windstorms that knock down trees and b) you might want to consider not building a house in a stand of trees that might fall over in a windstorm.

[wythors]

In last year's storm, we lost power for a grand total of 35 minutes. We had friends that were out of over 6 days. Last night, however, the power was out when I got home about 5:00 and didn't come back on until 1:30 in the morning.

[cobolt]

Last night was nothing. Last year was bad. We had windstorms, snow, packed ice. Power was out for days. I remember the year before last, I was hiking near the water on the Peninsula side and I heard this crack and watched the wind blow this huge tree down onto the power lines. It was so surreal. We have those windstorms every so often in the winter.

[chris]

last winter was crazy. Trees snapping everywhere! I had to cut down a few next to the house just out of fear that they'd drop this winter. Both trees were 150+ft tall.

Yesterday was a good little preview though, a wind gust picked up an unsecured ~1" thick glass tabletop off the deck onto the ground below. That thing was at least 60-80 lbs (now much lighter due to being in several hundred pieces)