~ A 250 Word Account (with video) ~
The wind started around 4:50 AM pushing thin snow at a slant from the west. I was playing Eve Online and periodically stoking the fire throughout the remaining night hours as it mounted and occasionally shifted direction. By sunup it was raging wildly, blowing snow up from the ground back into the air from any direction in huge, beautifully swirling masses. As each hour passed it intensified until peaking around noon, making the house creak and moan in ways I had never heard before.
I videoed a few seconds of it and posted that to youtube and to this little blog, then sent an email to Dad advising he suggest visiting relatives stay at there one more day. Moments after clicking send, a sledgehammer gust slammed into the house and I lost wifi signal. Either the cell tower had been damaged or power feed to it had been severed. That set me to thinking of how I would evacuate the house, and this canyon, if it became much more obviously dangerous to stay. Visions of satellite imagery of great swaths of high-altitude forest leveled by such winds crossed my mind. I moved the truck away from trees which might fall on it, a full tank of propane still standing upright and lashed firm against the rear of the cab, wondering if it might ignite if smashed by a heavy, falling tree trunk.
The off-grid power stayed up, as usual. Too bad for the grid-tied folks downslope.
Comments