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STORM VIEWS FROM THE HEAD OF THE DRIVEWAY
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The
Fall from Smugness Dateline: Wednesday, December 20th, 2006, -Wednesday, 8pm, Got Internet back about 2 hours ago (along with cable, the Patrick Stewart "Scrooge" is playing in the background). -Wednesday, 6am, Radiant floor was finally warm again this morning. -Tuesday, 6pm, get home from work and turned on the switch I'd never told my wife about to restart the radiant floor. -Tuesday, noon, A new propane tank arrived. Wife thinks radiant floor now heating. -Monday, 4pm, Electricity returns. It took a four-truck power crew over 9 hours to do the 200 yards around our home (yes, we love the linemen), and that's after the trees had already been removed the day before. -Sunday afternoon, tree specialist comes and removes one tree (see below) and a few others that had worried us but didn't fall. -Saturday and Sunday, fought with the inverter on our solar-electric system (inverter is the heart of the system, without it, she don't fly). Finally achieved full crash by Sunday afternoon: batteries weren't recharging, solar panels useless, reading by candle light. Replacement estimates presently around $3,200 and that's with me doing the wiring. The now useless block of metal on the wall originally cost $6,500 and the company folded six weeks after we hung it on the wall. Insurance probably won't cover, working on them. -Friday afternoon, four-hour drive to pick up new regulator so that we could run our propane stove in the great room for heat and cooking. Heat and cook for the next five days from a succession of small, 5 gallon bottles of propane. -Friday midday, six hours to cut out from where "the bomb hit" as it is now called around the island. A dozen trees, 80-120' tall, lay across the road to either side of our driveway, never mind the stuff in the woods. Two snapped power poles, transformers in the street, several other poles knocked over 45 deg or more. Over 1/2 of the trees that were across roads on the island were within a 100 yards of our driveway. -Friday 4am, the ferry breaks lose and goes walkabout down the channel sans pilot or crew. It is found snarled up in the city docks about 1/2 a mile downwind by someone checking up on their boat. It won't be certified as functional until 2pm letting me drive 4 hours to get a new propane regulator. -Friday 3am, the storm peaked (estimates over 90mph). It came directly up the channel, banked off the two hills to either side of us and roared up the cleft where we sat, smug in our solar-electric, battery-backed up home. The propane safe underground. Only the top of the tank and the regulator are exposed at all. Smug, smug, smug. BOOM! The bomb hit. Despite being at the center of the blast, we only lost 1 tree. Count them. One. A 10" thick fir tree topped off twenty feet up. Forty feet or so of trunk, and a whole mess of associated branches, speared down directly onto our propane tank, pancaked the lid, cracked the valve, sheared off the copper feed line, then slid down the side and shattered the regulator. When I, foolishly, stuck my head out the door at 6am to see if I could make it to work, I heard a loud "ssssssss." I closed the door and thought, "funny sound that." I once more opened the door. "SSSSSS." I took off my cell phone and the ham radio I'd grabbed (we're part of the island emergency response team) and edged over to the tank and managed to crank it closed. Glance at the meter, we sent 2-300 gallons of propane into the sky. At winter rates. -Thursday 9pm, "The wind storm is starting to really roar off the water." "Well, we've got the solar panels and the propane tank, we're just fine." Warm and snug (if no longer smug). House unharmed. No one hurt. Incredibly thankful, MATT |
