From Snowstorm to Windstorm

There was a windstorm last Thursday night and we were without power for four nights. We spent three of those in motel rooms. Thanks goodness it didn't also snow, though there was some sleet one night.

Things I have learned about emergency preparedness:

• What the stores ran out of right away: C and D cells (for flashlights and lanterns), ice (for coolers so food in the fridge won't spoil), milk (for babies?). Gasoline lines appeared as only some stations were operating.
• Our landline phone (using a corded handset) still worked but only for a couple of days. Our Cingular cell phones worked for a day or so and then also went out. We were able to recharge the handset but apparently our local repeater had lost power. A borrowed T-Mobile phone still worked. I still have my amateur radio license (KI7KJ), perhaps I need to get active on a local repeater again. One that's off the grid - anyone know of one in King County?
• Without electric power, our gas furnace could not operate. When we lived up on Cougar Mountain years ago, we had a generator and a big power switch so we could go off-grid. We used it to great advantage in the last big wind storm 12 years ago. Perhaps we need to set things up at our current house the same way. I've heard that a Prius car can be modified to act as a generator.
• With traffic lights out, intersections reverted to four-way stops. Traffic was horrible and grid-locked in places. Our local roundabout worked fine, of course, as roundabouts don't need electricity.
• I was shocked by the crappy news coverage of this by our local newspapers and television stations. How about maps showing which areas had power and which didn't? How about estimates for when power would be restored - not generalities but specific predictions for each neighborhood? How about coverage of which cell networks handled the emergency best? How about listing what hotels still had rooms available, which grocery stores were still open, etc? We got none of that, just rehashed press releases from the power companies, speculation on how many homes were without power, safety tips and human interest stories with some individual storm victims. I suppose this is of interest in Istanbul and New Zealand. I know the traditional media have been in decline, but this convinced me that blogs and such are the only decent source of news these days.
• Shelly uses a laptop computer, which we took with us and used. My information is on a desktop computer, which I could not access. I think I either need to switch to a laptop, or keep critical data on a USB thumbdrive that I could take with me.
• How come we can't have plows and salt for when it snows, and buried power lines for when it blows? Other areas have these things, it can't be that impractical. What politicians are to blame for all that has gone wrong? You certainly can't tell from the Seattle Times, the Seattle P-I or King5 news. The only politician I've heard speak of such things was Charlie Chong and he only ran in the City of Seattle. It's really not acceptable to be so unprepared for weather problems that occur with some regularity.

Anyway, power is now back on and all is warm here again.