Wild Weather (241/365)

9

August 29, 2015 – Some crazy weather today. We had a rain warning, but nowhere did it say it was going to be an afternoon of wild winds that would knock power out to over 400,000 people, including BC Hydro and the 911 dispatch.

Since we knew it was going to be a wet weekend, the plans included a drive to drop off a boat carburetor in the hopes that it could be rebuilt, a drive out to Langley to pick up 30lbs of tomatoes and some other produce at a place off 176th Ave, and a stop at Rona for Kirk to pick up some things. Then we were to head home where I was going to spend the afternoon making and canning pasta sauce and pizza sauce and Kirk was going to build some storage shelving in the laundry room.

The stop aboutt he boat carb didn’t go well, the mechanic said we’d be better off to buy new ones. Sigh, another “boat buck” in the works then.

On the way out to Langley we were buffeted around the highway, and found ourselves, quite literally, dodging branches both on the road as well as those flying through the air and hurtling towards the cars driving below. Lane changes were sudden and swift all around and I assume that contributed heavily to the many accidents being reported on the radio.

As we took the 172nd exit we watched a pickup truck enter on the onramp with a couple of tall metal cabinets int he back, tied on with nothing more than some polypropylene twine. My guess is that, given the gusting winds, he didn’t make it far down the freeway with those still int he back of his truck.

We pulled into the produce stand and immediately noted the darkness…. Damn, neither of us had enough cash to buy what we wanted. Surprisingly, when we walked into the darkened space we noticed that the computer point of sale was up on the computer monitor. We both stopped and stared in confusion and then asked… “Is your cash system online? ”

“Yes, we have a backup generator.”

“So we can pay by credit or debit?”

“Yes.”

Awesome!

Kirk looked at me and said “Shop quick, who knows how long their backup system will work.”

As we grabbed a cart and rolled around the shop the winds became louder and angrier. Potted plants fell off the shelves and went rolling by the entry and the shop sign was ripped loose and hung by one cable. The soft greenhouse roofing was battered and sounded like a sail about to release from its halyard. It was wild.

After a round of the dark shop we had accumulated 30lbs of tomatoes, 4lbs of pears, a few pounds of peaches, some potatoes, onions, yellow wax beans, a pack of amazing looking long red peppers, and a pineapple. All for a mere $40. And this is why I come out here to get larger quantities of produce for canning purposes.

On the drive back we tuned the radio to AM730 Traffic, far more riveting than the regular music stations. The announcers had a long litany of power outages, road closures, highway blockages, trees down, power lines down, even large plastic road dividers that had been pushed across the deck on the Patullo Bridge, closing it for obvious safety reasons. The announcer then said “Our best advice is just don’t go outside, don’t leave home, just don’t go anywhere.”

As we crossed the overpass on the freeway we saw traffic at a dead stop heading East. Just down the roadway, around 192nd Street, we could see a tree across the freeway and nothing but brake lights. If we’d been just 30 minutes later we wouldn’t have made our exit at 176th Street.

The drive back was reasonably uneventful since we were now on the far side of the freeway with the winds coming across. Far less debris on this side. As we came toward the Iron Workers Memorial Bridge to head back onto the North Shore and to home, the radio announcer said something about a problem on The Cut that was stopping traffic both directions. As we came across and looked ahead we could see lights up the hill and no traffic moving either direction.

Abort!

A quick dive onto the offramp and the lower roads took us into a lower traffic area and home the back way. As we came down the street to home we couldn’t see any lights on in any homes and as we pulled into our driveway one of our neighbours came across the lawn and said she was checking on the other three homes and informed us that the power was out. We were busy cleaning up the potted tree that had been sent sailing off the upper deck wall and down into the driveway, shattering the pot. Kirk had to get a ladder to retrieve the other potted plant that was also tossed off the deck and was laying upside down on the glass awning above our garage door. Amazing that the awing was still intact.

So although we did get the produce, Kirk was unable to do his Saturday planned projects because it’s difficult to run power tools with no power.

I, on the other hand, was able to carry out my cooking and canning because we have a gas range and I can still light that with a lighter 🙂

And so now, eight hours later, we are still without power and wondering when it will come on again. Along with another 400,000 households int eh Lower Mainland we are in the dark.

We were looking forward to watching the news to see the chaos this unexpected windstorm wrought.

Clearly that’s not in the cards.

No power, no internet, but the iPhone and a quick hotspot allowed me to get my post up anyway.

On the up-side, if the carbs hadn’t failed we might have been out ont he water today, whew…dodged that bullet thankfully!

Oh well, we have wine, candles, lanterns, and imagination 🙂