Cyclone Bomb: Western Washington
- navakallc
- Nov 24, 2024
- 4 min read
This week, a storm welcomed itself into western Washington, one that a lot of people weren’t prepared for. I myself hadn’t experienced one like this ever, with winds going at about 60 miles per hour, the tree branches swishing in the breeze. It was exhilarating at first, with the constant sounds of nature at its best outside, the wind and the rain making it almost impossible to see anything.
I came home at about 4pm Tuesday evening (19th November 2024) on what I thought was a normal day in western Washington. There was a light breeze and rain, which was expected. I had heard the warnings on the news that morning, and hadn’t given it much thought, knowing that storms were frequent during this time of the year, and the one last year wasn’t so bad. little did I know what I was in a treat for. The lights kept flickering throughout the day, when I was studying and eating dinner. They started getting more frequent and we first lost power at 10pm.
Quickly running to grab our flashlights, we started understanding the seriousness of the storm, but then our lights came back on 2 minutes later. Thinking it was just a precautionary measure, I continued watching tv. The lights went out some 15 minutes later, with no indications of it coming back.
Usually, after a power outage, we get a notification from PSE (Puget Sound Energy) which indicates a time that we would get our power by, but that wasn’t the case this time. That’s when we realized how big of a storm it really was. We could hear branches snapping in the wind, one of the smaller ones landing on our roof and my friends and I were frantically texting about all our power going out. We were praying school would be out tomorrow.
At 5 the next morning, our wish was granted. The school district had no power, which is why schools were cancelled on Wednesday. Though we woke up to find that we didn’t have power either. Trying to go get more supplies, we went to grocery stores, but most of them were closed due to the power outage. One of the most surprising things was that even most of the traffic signals were off due to the outage, something I had never seen before.
Luckily, our outdoor stove was still working, and so we commenced to make breakfast and lunch there. Thankfully, we had a gas fireplace that still worked, because our furnace had also shut down due to the power outage. Warm water and heat provided us relief, because we still hadn’t gotten power on Thursday, and once again, the schools were closed. We then decided to go to my dad’s office, which still had power, thankfully. They had made accommodations for the employee’s families due to the outage, where there was space to work, ports to charge our devices and pretty much two of the buildings for the families. Our teachers kept pushing the dates for when our assignments were due, and so I decided to get a head start on some of my assignments while I still had internet. Contacting friends became a real hassle, and I would try to walk to every inch of my house, trying to get my messages to send. I was glad to have a good connection down at the office.
Schools were still closed on Friday, giving us an extended break for the third day now, plus the weekend. Albeit I was so glad to get our house’s internet and power back on Thursday night. There were so many more people to not get it back by then though. We were some of the lucky ones, because even most of Education Hill, the area in which we live, got power back on Friday night. By Saturday about half of the people had gotten power. Sadly, one of the areas near us were struck the most, and got power back just a couple of hours ago, on Sunday night. 6 days without power. Can you imagine?! I’m grateful for the return of our beloved power. Though my friends and I had a different approach towards it. After the 5 day extended weekend this week, we have Thanksgiving break next week as well, with only two days of school in between.
One day without internet seemed like an eternity, with no contact to the outside world. We take so much for granted in this world we live in today, where we are able to reach and talk to people miles away, where all information is just a click away, on our screens. This power outage was definitely a humbling moment for me, where we all got some much needed (forced) rest and a lot of family time. Throughout this outage, we lost a lot of branches, and trees ripped out of the ground. Some of the trees had good aim unfortunately, as they landed on nearby parked cars, houses and worst of all, the power lines, making them one of the profound reasons on why the power was gone for so long. Thankfully, most people are getting power back now, and the world can go back to normal this coming Monday.