Aftermath

At least in places the storm lived up to its billing.  I am not one to raise an alarm unless I can see the potential is real and with two lows gathering and heading east, it looked real.  The photo to the right was one from a member of the NOAA mesonet in Anchorage.  The National Weather Service lost power early and was unable to record much over the evening and night.  While it is not an official reading, the Weather Service had enough faith in it to post it on Facebook: a gust of 131 miles per hour.  There were several other reports of gusts of more than 100 mph from spots on the hillside above the east side of Anchorage.  Thousands in Anchorage were without power late into Wednesday. It was out about six hours here and I slept through it, so no big problem.

The last lily survives the wind.

Around here it didn't look like there was much damage.  There certainly was a lot of wind but nothing over 50 I don't think.  (Hint hint:  birthday and Christmas are coming and I would LOVE one of those weather stations like the guy who took that reading has).  Even the last lily of the year survived the wind.  That's it in the small picture.  A few branches fell into the driveway but none of the big trees.  I drove around the neighborhood and into town and saw where large branches had fallen across the roads and were cleared away by highway crews.  By the time I went by, one crew was clearing a branch out of the water where the salmon are spawning.  Off the highway a ways a few larger trees had broken and their tops fell to the forest floor.  Did they make a noise?

Shed has gone

See dust blowing off a gravel bar? River 20 feet from house.

I checked on the disappearing land along the river and another building has gone.  No one was around so I took a walk down toward the water.  Didn't stand too close to the bank though. The river remained high probably fed by heavy rains last night and appeared to be cutting into the bank still. The shed that was off to the left of the main house wasn't there any more.  Worse, by guesstimate the river was within 20 feet of the main house.  The photos show the situation as of today.

All in all it could have been a lot worse.  I didn't drive to the west over toward Wasilla where winds usually are stronger and more sustained so not sure what happened there.  I do know after wind storms like this the trees over that way are usually sporting new clothing in the form of plastic grocery bags.  (No lecture, just sayin')

Here's a NOAA collection of photos of damage in Anchorage.