Record Wind Storm Claims 6 Lives in Pacific Northwest
Saturday , December 16, 2006
SEATTLE — Residents of the Pacific Northwest struggled to stay warm Saturday after the worst windstorm in more than a decade knocked out power to more than 1.5 million homes and businesses and killed at least six people.
About 950,000 customers in Washington and Oregon remained without power Friday night. Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire declared a state of emergency, and with temperatures expected to drop over the weekend, officials warned people not to use outdoor grills, propane heaters or other carbon monoxide-producing equipment indoors.
Firefighters in Kent found 33 people from four families suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning Friday night, fire Capt. Kyle Ohashi said. They had taken their barbecues inside to cook or heat their apartments as temperatures dipped into the 30s.
They were taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, and all were expected to survive, Ohashi said.
In Oregon, a family of six was sickened by carbon monoxide from a generator set up in a garage in Gresham after the storm knocked out power, police said. Three children were hospitalized in critical condition late Friday, while one child and both parents were listed in good condition.
Winds gusted to a record 69 mph early Friday at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, breaking the old mark of 65 mph set in 1993. Winds were clocked at 113 mph near Mount Rainier.
Power was knocked out at one of the airport's concourses, canceling dozens of flights. Flights were also canceled at Portland International Airport in Oregon, and Amtrak canceled service between Seattle and Portland after downed trees and mudslides blocked the tracks.
Two people were killed in Washington in traffic accidents involving windblown trees, while one died after getting trapped in her basement by rising floodwaters. A fourth person was killed while he slept when the top of a tree snapped off and crashed into his home.
On the Oregon coast, an elderly couple died in a house fire caused by candles they were using during a power outage.
Puget Sound Energy, Washington's largest private utility, had 625,000 customers without power on Friday night. Some won't have their lights back on for days, spokeswoman Martha Monfried said.
Seattle City Light reported 107,000 outages Friday evening, while Snohomish County Public Utility District said 20,000 of its customers were still in the dark.
In Oregon, Portland General Electric said it had about 130,000 customers without power Friday evening, while Pacific Power said it was down to 64,000. Some of those customers are in Washington state.
The storm was the most intense to hit the region since the Inauguration Day storm of Jan. 20, 1993, which killed five people and caused about $130 million in damage, said Clifford F. Mass, a University of Washington atmospheric sciences professor.
New slogan for Seattle publicity: 'metronatural'
October 20, 2006
By Associated Press
|
|
SEATTLE - Metronatural.
That's the new tagline for an advertising campaign by the Seattle Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The bureau says the "brand concept was designed to highlight Seattle's rare and uniquely marketable combination of urban and outdoor experiences."
The slogan was developed over a year at a cost of $200,000.
The bureau says it expects its 1,000 member businesses to incorporate "metronatural" into their advertising, Web sites, brochures and public relations.
The bureau says Seattle had more than 9 million visitors last year, and the bureau hopes to attract more conventions, cruise ship visitors and other travelers.
The highest temperature recorded anywhere on Earth was in Aziziyah, Libya, in September of 1922 – 136 degrees Fahrenheit.
The highest temperature recorded in the United States was in Death Valley, Calif., in July of 1913 – 134 degrees Fahrenheit.
Boys reel in 5-foot, 60-pound alligator in Kalispell pond
Some birthdays stand out as exceptionally memorable; 16 and 21 usually make the list.
Josh Bryant will never forget his 11th birthday, when he came nose to snout with a 5-foot alligator in Kalispell.
On Monday afternoon, Josh and his mother, Lynn, were trying out the new fishing pole she’d given him for his birthday. The Shady Lane fishing pond near the old Steel Bridge, where he spends three or four days a week during the summer, seemed the perfect place to test the rod.
It was about 4 p.m. when Lynn Bryant spotted something swimming toward them.
“I thought it was a muskrat,” she said.
Then she took a closer look. Muskrats didn’t swim with just their eyes and back ridges sticking out of the water.
The Bryants couldn’t believe their eyes, but there was no doubt the animal swimming toward them was an alligator. Bryant moved to the edge of the dock and started taking pictures with her camera phone, knowing no one would believe them otherwise.
At first the alligator was almost friendly, she said, but they still wanted to get it out of the water so someone could come take care of it. A friend grabbed Josh’s pole and tried to hook the gator. He succeeded a few times, but each time the alligator simply swallowed the lure.
A few more would-be fishermen showed up soon after. One of them had a stronger pole; he, too, tried to catch the alligator but once again it swallowed the proffered minnow, hook and all.
By this time, onlookers had called friends and soon a crowd of about 50 people had gathered. Some simply watched. Others tried to help subdue the alligator, which was now agitated.
“This thing was very aggressive,” Bryant said.
“It was snapping at us kids and adults,” Josh added.
Someone brought a bow and shot it. They knew the alligator had been hit because the arrow was sticking straight up, Josh said. Then the arrow — and the alligator — disappeared for almost an hour. Suspense mounted on the banks of the pond.
“It was like a serial killer movie or something, a killer alligator,” Josh said.
The gator didn’t stay down for good, though. When it surfaced, the crowd was ready.
“His dad jumped in the water,” Josh said, pointing at his friend, Kaynen McGuire.
McGuire, 11, nodded. His father had plunged in the water with a stick, grabbed the alligator by the tail and swung it onto the bank.
“This was right out of ‘Crocodile Dundee,’ I swear,” Bryant said.
Four men held it down and tied its jaws shut with fish stringer, then put it in a canoe and dragged it up to the road. Someone produced a knife and tried to slit the animal’s throat. Still it didn’t die.
“This thing’s got like nine lives,” Bryant said.
The Flathead County Sheriff’s Office didn’t hear about the incident until about 10 p.m., according to dispatch logs. When Deputy Ray Young arrived, he called Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, which referred him to U.S. Fish and Wildlife. By this time, the alligator was in bad shape, so the federal agency told Young to shoot it.
Brian Sommers, regional investigator with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, got the call around 10:40 p.m.
“When I got there, it was pretty much over and done with,” he said. “It was just talking with the people that were there and picking up the critter.”
The “critter” will go in a freezer at the Fish, Wildlife and Parks office, Sommers said. He’s not sure what the agency will do with it.
He’s also not sure where the alligator came from.
“The only thing I can guess is it was probably somebody’s pet,” he said. “Maybe they got tired of it and turned it loose.”
Sommers has had to deal with pet alligators in the past, he said, but only a few and only animals about 20 inches long. At 5 feet long and roughly 60 pounds, Monday’s alligator was the largest he’s ever seen in the area.
If found, the person responsible will be charged for releasing the alligator into the wild, he said.
“Given the right circumstances, we could’ve had a pretty big problem if it got hold of a kid swimming or something,” he said.
If anyone has information about how the alligator got into the pond, call 1-800-TIP-MONT or call Crimestoppers at 752-TIPS.
Even though it’s now alligator-free, Josh won’t be fishing at the pond anytime soon.
“It was just my 11th birthday, and I had to catch an alligator,” he said. “Why couldn’t I catch a little trout?”
| | The section of the road between Rising Sun and St. Mary Entrance is closed due to a fire. will be closed at 3:00pm due to fires |
Over 100 Evacuated After 9 Inches of Rain Flooded Ohio Rivers, Streets
Friday , July 28, 2006
EASTLAKE, Ohio -Flood water surged into homes and businesses, forcing people to rooftops to await rescue Friday morning after 9 inches of rain filled the rivers and streets of northeast Ohio.
Lake County, east of Cleveland, declared a state of emergency. County Administrator Kenneth R. Gauntner Jr. estimated at least 100 people had been evacuated and all available rescue boats had been pressed into service.
As much as 9 inches of rain fell Thursday and Friday in Lake County, the National Weather Service said.
Firefighters and Coast Guard crews were busy plucking stranded people from flooding homes and searching for a man who disappeared early Friday while moving marina equipment out of high water near the swollen Chagrin River, an outlet to Lake Erie.
Several storms have pounded the state over the past month, wreaking havoc on riverside homes and low-lying neighborhoods.
"It's just been a very active weather pattern for this part of the country," said Dan Leins, a weather service meteorologist in Cleveland. "When you have weather patterns like this, it's not uncommon to see showers and thunderstorms several nights in a row."
In Eastlake, officials opened City Hall as a temporary shelter.
In nearby Mentor, police helped remove more than 100 children from Ridge Pointe Child Care Center on Thursday as waist-deep water flooding the parking lot began seeping into the building.
Children were pulled through windows and bused to a nearby fire station, where their parents picked them up.
"It was the most organized chaos I have ever seen," said Tonja Schleicher, owner of the day care. "Some of the kids were a little upset, so we just hugged them a little tighter."
It's Even Warm At Night, But Never This Warm
July 24, 2006
By Scott Sistek
|
|
SEATTLE - Erasers sure have been busy with the Seattle record books lately. And they don't even get any time off at night.
The high temperatures have been getting all the glory lately, but did you know Seattle just had the warmest night in their history Sunday night?
The low temperature Monday morning was a balmy 70 degrees. It's the first time the temperature has failed to drop under 70 since records have been kept in Seattle. The previous record for warmest night (or "highest low temperature") was 69 degrees set Sept. 2, 1974.
That record comes on the heels of a string of high temperature records the past few days.
The erasers first got their work in on Friday, when Seattle (97), Olympia (101), Hoquiam (90) and Stampede Pass (93) set record highs. Not to be outdone, Portland (104) and Vancouver, Wash. (104) also topped the charts. And Hillsboro, Oregon (just outside of Portland) tied their all-time record with 108 degrees.
Then, Saturday came along. Time to re-write more records.
Seattle (96), Hoquiam (91), and Stampede Pass (90) once again broke records. Olympia (99) tied theirs.
The record high temperature books sort of caught a break on Sunday. Even though temperatures were once again in the mid-upper 90s, it turned out in 1981, it was even hotter, and most records were near 100.
But! Seattle did tie a record for number of consecutive days at 95 or hotter at three. The last and only time it's happened before was in August of 1977.
Temperatures were on pace Monday morning to perhaps get to 95 again, meaning that record could be broken.
Going back to the "warm nights" theme, several of those daily records were broken this weekend as well.
Seattle (68), Olympia, (71), Hoquiam (60), Forks (58) and Bellingham (64) all set daily records for highest low temperature on Friday night.
Then came Seattle's 70 degree low Monday morning. That gave temperatures a great head start to try and reach the mid 90s once again for Monday afternoon, but cooler weather is promised Tuesday and through the end of the week.
Which is probably a good thing, since our eraser is getting really tired! :)
The Heat Wave, So Far
Just for those still curious, here's how the heat wave has stacked up so far:
Here's the official stats of the three day heat wave extravaganza:
| Friday | Saturday | Sunday | |
| Vancouver (WA) | 104 | 94 | 101 |
| Portland | 104 | 93 | 101 |
| Shelton | 102 | 101 | 99 |
| Olympia | 101 | 99 | 98 |
| Kelso | 100 | 97 | 99 |
| Bremerton | 99 | 93 | 95 |
| Bellevue | 99 | 99 | 95 |
| Seattle | 97 | 96 | 95 |
| Renton | 97 | 95 | 93 |
| Tacoma | 97 | 93 | 93 |
| Gig Harbor | 95 | 91 | 92 |
| Arlington | 93 | 91 | 91 |
| Friday Harbor | 92 | 90 | 89 |
| Port Angeles | 91 | 90 | 87 |
| Forks | 91 | 86 | 87 |
| Hoquiam | 90 | 91 | 80 |
| Everett | 90 | 89 | 88 |
| Bellingham | 88 | 85 | 84 |
Seattle broke the old record of 94 degrees today and Portland really Fried!
Vancouver (WA): 104
Portland: 104
Shelton: 102
Kelso: 100
Olympia: 100
Bremerton: 99
Seattle: 97
Renton: 97
Tacoma: 97
Arlington: 93
Friday Harbor: 92
Hoquiam: 90
Everett: 90
Forks: 89
Port Angeles: 89
Bellingham: 88
