Two Flags Flying at Cape D!

As winter storms go, yesterday’s much-hyped “Pineapple Express” didn’t amount to much – at least not here in Oysterville. It certainly didn’t warrant school closures on the Peninsula or all the dire warnings by well-meaning newbies to ‘stay home’ and to ‘be prepared.’ And why in the world did the USCG have the hurricane flags flying?

It wasn’t that long ago that hurricane flags – two red square flags with black centers – were NEVER flown on the Peninsula, no matter how severe the weather because, according to the U.S. Weather Service, a hurricane is a tropical storm. I guess the fact that this weather system emanated in Hawaii put a different light on things. Still, I was sore amazed.

Yesterday in Warrenton at 1:00 P.M.

We went to Astoria where I was scheduled to tell some Christmas stories to a group from Clatsop Community College. We had gone early to do a bit shopping so didn’t feel the trip was one bit wasted when we found the event had been cancelled – due to weather predictions. The sky was blue, there was little wind, and it seemed like life-as-usual, even on the bridge. Except for the woman, also headed for the Peninsula, who had stopped her car mid-span, and was standing by the driver’s door taking pictures of the darkening sky to the west. Sheesh!

On our way home we stopped at a local watering hole for a late lunch and, like all the people who entered, we were greeted by an effusive server who told us “we would be safe” there, that the bridge was now closed, that the hurricane would hit at three o’clock precisely, and that the power would certainly go out. The more she repeated this litany, the more excited she seemed to get and the more nervous her customers became. It was truly ridiculous.  And most of it wrong,.

As we headed to Oysterville, Nyel and I talked about this entire “early warning” phenomenon – this over-reaction to every earth tremor and pending storm that the ‘experts’ and spin-doctors rile everyone up about. What happened to those days when winter meant that everyone was always prepared for high winds and torrential rains and power outages? It was business as usual until it became obvious that adjustments needed to be made; beach people took pride in their low-key stoicism.

By four-thirty when I went out to batten down the chickens, the wind was picking up. Later, our friend Jack sent pictures of downtown Healdsburg, California – totally flooded and with kayakers paddling from courthouse to Safeway. He reported that he and Nan were high and dry and: I guess we’ll stay home tonight (today).  The river did not overtop, just Foss Creek, upon which the town was founded. We love this town, and the lights (city-owned) never went out, or the water system either. Or the Internet.

Ditto from Oysterville, Jack. I hope that other folks up and down the coast fared as well.