Severe Storm Watch

The “Big One” hit Seattle during the winter of 1991, we were unprepared, and unfortunately the weathermen had not predicted the storm. Three trees crashed onto our house leaving a gaping hole, actually not a bad thing as we needed a new roof. Though I must say, living in an unheated home had its disadvantages. Because of this event, Craig was determined that we would never be without power again.  Picture the refrain from, “Gone with the Wind”, when Scarlett O’Hara says; “I will never be hungry again”, it was something like that, only I don’t even sort of look like Scarlett...

 I concurred with Craig about the necessity of a generator after we froze our bottoms off during the storm. However, I put the generator idea out of my head once we had power again. The weather was not foremost on my mind as one of the babies had just hurled himself down the staircase in one of those deathtrap bouncy seats with wheels.

The 1993 storm hit and we were dry and warm. Craig was feeling manly and magnanimous; he seemed to visibly puff up when the neighbors came over for the comforts of our generator run house. And, because it was near Christmas, Craig turned on a small burst of outdoor festive lights.

In the year of 2006 there was again a “Severe Storm Watch”, the weatherman predicted, “severe winds, gusting to 60 m.p.h. My husband, Craig, obsessively watched the weather channel while I read the newest edition of the Oprah magazine. He began to get ready... he unearthed all of our camping equipment, extension cords, bungee cords, zip ties and duct tape (the last 2 being standard fare for any problem in our house).

Two days before the storm we had all of the cars filled with gas, all available receptacles filled with gas, food in the refrigerator and the house was a maze of long fat extension cords that hooked into various outlets for the generator. Craig labeled everything so that we would be adept at completing the task in the event that he was out of town, however it was much to complicated for mere mortals.

As we waited for our impending storm, the kids harassed Craig, Austin told his dad to get a real job and Conner called him a sissy. I began to feel rather sorry for my husband. He was taking a lot of abuse from our disrespectful teenagers. Ten o’clock p.m. rolled around and all remained calm outside. We continued to harass Craig who ignored us and retired to the large closet off of his den, (in the advent that a large tree MAY fall on the house.) His withdraw was followed by snickers from the rest of the family. We all went to bed in our usual spots; we were not worried about trees crashing through the house.

Twelve o’clock and all was not well. Giant branches were falling on the roof and the old windows were clapping with the wind. I hastily made my way to the closet, where I met Austin and Lexi who were also rather nervous about the weather. Craig poked his head out of the closet with a large smirk on his face. At last he was vindicated. The storm cometh and in a big way!

The four of us and the two dogs spent a very restless night in the closet. Conner ignored all warnings and slept in his room, after all, he was the one who had called his dad a sissy.

The next morning we attempted to drive to Starbucks, reasoning that after the stressful night, we would start off our day normally with a strong cup of espresso. We did not make it out of the driveway!  Naturally, this gave Craig the excuse he needed to power up the generator. Why he didn’t power it up earlier when we freezing our bums off is beyond me. After four days our power was turned on and we loaned the generator to some friends to keep their sump pump functioning...they had been keeping a round the clock bucket brigade.

Craig has a book proposal in mind...to inform other storm sufferers of the correct way to prepare for a storm.