Finishing Touches

The painters put the finishing touches on our south porch about 4:30 on Thursday.  It began to rain a few minutes later.

“Don’t worry if it gets wet,” we were told.  “The worst that will happen is some spotting and we can easily take care of that when things dry out.”

A few minutes later, a phone call from a neighbor alerted us to the “typhoon” that was to arrive on Saturday.  “Are you ready?” she asked and offered sanctuary at her house.  “I have the generator ready to power up if need be,” she said.  Things would get bad later that evening, we were told, and then there would be a lull and then 130 sustained winds expected by three o’clock Saturday.  (That’s today.)

Were we ready?
Flashlights?    Check.
Dry firewood accessible?  Check.
Water and food supply in readiness?  Check.
Lawn furniture, hanging pots secured?  Check.

Freshly Painted Porch Railing

Yep.  Ready.  Bring it on!  While we went about life-as-usual, I thought about the big storms this old house has survived over the years:  “The Big Wind of 1921” when the Oysterville Methodist Church blew down and the Williams’s chickens blew from Ilwaco to Seaview.  “The Columbus Day Storm” in 1962 when the Columbia River was still clotted with debris when we came up from Christmas two-and-a-half months later.  “The Great Gale of 2007” when the entire area shut down for days due to no power, no through traffic, and emergency vehicles had to travel north and south on the beach.  Was it easier, I wondered, back when people simply took the weather as it arrived?  Or is knowing and preparing less stressful?

Friday (yesterday) began with the best-ever light show over the bay!  For an hour or more the sheet lightening lit up the sky and we did the obligatory ‘one thousand and one” count each time until we heard the clap of thunder.  By our scientific reckoning (not!) the closest strikes were seven miles away.  In the next few hours we got several “Take Cover! Tornado Arriving in Your Area” warnings by cell phone and heard that Manzanita, an hour or so south of us, had been badly damaged by two of the twisters.

Painting Before the Storm

At noon, as we drove to Ilwaco to keep a doctor’s appointment, we passed Ocean Park School which, like other schools on the Peninsula, was closed for the day.  When we tried to stop at the library to check on a book we found that it, too, was closed.  Most businesses in Long Beach, however, appeared to be open as usual, but there were few cars on the road and no pedestrians to be seen.  A news flash from FEMA, according to one of the staff members at the clinic, sounded dire: 151 mph sustained winds on the Oregon Coast and up to Ilwaco and Long Beach at three o’clock Saturday.  (That’s today.)

Are we prepared?  You bet!  Are we skeptical?  You bet!  This morning, predictions appear to have been downgraded.  The highest wind forecast for the day is for 56 mph at 3 p.m.  Stay tuned…  And, by the way, the porch floor remains spotless.  Just sayin’…