I like storms. I like being cozy inside, curled up under a blanket watching the weather, or going outside and feeling the wind/rain/snow whirl around me (and then going inside and curling up under a blanket).
Of course, I don’t like beautiful trees being blown down, lengthy power outages, or storms so severe they damage homes, hurt people, and result in lots of spending for our city. So that’s my disclaimer re: liking storms. But I do like them.
The wind storm on Tuesday night was particularly fun – in addition to the obligatory dashing about with flashlights and comforting our slightly freaked out puppy, I could still stay connected and get updates across town (in fact, I could almost see the power outage coming this way – Hillside: out; Southside: out; Turnagain: out; Spenard: out; and finally, Downtown: out!) because my Mac and my Kindle Fire were both fully charged.
Here are a few takeaways for you:
- The Sitka Spruce flagpole at the Anchorage Veterans Memorial on the park strip blew down and some inebriated kids were trying to “liberate” the flag to keep it safe; the flag is now missing. Return to the Veteran’s Association if found. The downed flagpole revealed a Maxwell House coffee can, which turned out to be a time capsule put together by some firefighters in 1961. The Alaska Dispatch has a cool story about the time capsule here.
- One of my former coworkers spent the night babysitting his Super Cub, which escaped unscathed party due to a 2×4, duct tape, and rope contraption (the purpose of which I’m unsure) – cheers to ingenious Alaskan engineers/pilots! Bruce, you never cease to amaze.
- Gusts were unofficially recorded at just over 130 mph near the Glen Alps parking lot by Joe Connelly, leader of the fabulously talented wedding photographers over at Chugach Peaks.
- People are very concerned about their freezers full of salmon, caribou, and whale thawing out. I would be too, if I had any stocked away. As it is, I am happy to volunteer to take some off your hands if you need it (except maybe the whale)!
- Lots of lucky people caught the northern lights after the storm calmed – so disappointed to have missed that!
Our power came on around 6:00 AM, but I’ve heard that some people’s power (my parents!) is still out. More storm info can be found in the Anchorage Daily News here, and another blogger’s perspective in the Midtown Edition here.
Today was still gray and rainy (and there’s termination dust on the mountains!), but this evening was sunny and beautiful when I took Grover for a walk. It was quiet and still damp out, and was one of those “it’s great to be alive” moments.
I think Grover likes storms too – he found his biggest stick (branch?) yet!
