Storm slams West Coast

[iJesus]

oh crap...

Talking about the storm...
.... Anyone familiar with Lake Tahoe?
(the amazing place I live in)

Well, some of my friends houses Higher up in the mountains recieved close to 10 feet of snow these past 2!!! Days!

Winds in the valleys were over 100 MPH
I think I heard gusts of 150 MPH also occurred

BUT! For the time being, thank god to Solar power and generators! (just in case)

"think happy thoughts, think happy, nice, warm thoughts"

 

[madfresh]

We got socked pretty good here outside of SF, but fortunately our house only lost power for maybe a couple of hours yesterday and an hour this morning. Very windy from about 4 AM until about 2 PM or so.

Over 500,000 in the Bay Area were without power yesterday, and a total of about 1.3 million out throughout Northern CA.

Some trees down and assorted debris scattered around, and a number of roads and bridges were closed yesterday. Things got cleaned up pretty quickly though.

It was pretty bad in SF. Muni, Bart, and the Ferry's were shut down.

 

[Counterfit]

well Cailfornia is taking the blow not Nevada

I could make a Hollywood joke here, but....

now what is really interesting is getting 1-2 inches of snow here and watching the world shut down. No one knows how to drive in it such shocking conditions...

Ugh, that's what it's like in RI at the first snow. All the old people haven't gone down to Florida yet, and everyone acts like it's the first time they've seen anything other than rain come from the sky.

Well, some of my friends houses Higher up in the mountains recieved close to 10 feet of snow these past 2!!! Days!

That's 24 inches in 48 hours. Only half an inch an hour. Pff.

 

[EMU1337]

I would hate to see you Californians live in Minnesota. There would be about 1000 threads a day about the crappy weather. Try waking up at 8 a.m. just to realize you have to walk to your incredibly boring general ed class in -15 degrees with a wicked 20-30mph wind blowing little shards of ice at your face. Oh and the summer......two words....tornados and mosquitos.....ok so maybe thats three, but yeah, like someone said earlier its all relative I guess.

 

[IJ Reilly]

I would hate to see you Californians live in Minnesota. There would be about 1000 threads a day about the crappy weather. Try waking up at 8 a.m. just to realize you have to walk to your incredibly boring general ed class in -15 degrees with a wicked 20-30mph wind blowing little shards of ice at your face. Oh and the summer......two words....tornados and mosquitos.....ok so maybe thats three, but yeah, like someone said earlier its all relative I guess.

I grew up in the Northeast but have lived in Southern California for more than 30 years now. Growing up I survived a variety of blizzards, ice storms, hurricanes, and floods. So I am also amused by the California weather wimps who get excited whenever the weather strays from completely benign. I think we might also be forgetting (already?) the truly monumental California winter of 2004-05, when it rained about 300% of normal (most of that over a few days), and caused a lot of serious damage. After that, it hardly rained for two years -- so I guess some forgot that storms like the one this week are a normal for January!

 

[spork183]

I would hate to see you Californians live in Minnesota. There would be about 1000 threads a day about the crappy weather. Try waking up at 8 a.m. just to realize you have to walk to your incredibly boring general ed class in -15 degrees with a wicked 20-30mph wind blowing little shards of ice at your face. Oh and the summer......two words....tornados and mosquitos.....ok so maybe thats three, but yeah, like someone said earlier its all relative I guess.

one word "choices". You have your ice shards and 40 below wind chill. out here in california, sometimes it gets so cold I have to put on a sweater. Most of us just have to suck it up and tough it out. I remember last winter when I didn't see the sun for 4 hours at a time. Had to drink extra milk to make up for the vitamin D deficiency.

 

[adrianblaine]

Well, that and the fact that it's usually so dry means the land, streets, and buildings themselves can't really handle this sort of downpour. Hence, mudslides, massive flooding of roads, and damage to buildings. Sure call it "relative" but that's just it, isn't it? Easy for folks to roll their eyes at a "bit of rain," not so easy when roads aren't passable, and mud and water damages homes.

I definitely see your point, though I have a hard time feeling truly sorry for people who choose to live in houses that are in danger of being slid down a mountain. Americans especially have built in places and inhabit places that probably shouldn't have been built up in the first place, and end up paying the consequences for doing so. I just happened to grow up in a place where it rains like this all winter and the have learned (for the most part) where you should and should not build.

 

[0007776]

there was a lot of wind and rain here, and I ended up without power for a little over a day, but it's back on now.

 

[eric55lv]

Here in Las Vegas its the clam before the storm its sunny now but out west I see super dark clouds so its going to rain hard

 

[devilot]

I definitely see your point, though I have a hard time feeling truly sorry for people who choose to live in houses that are in danger of being slid down a mountain.

FTR, the mudslides near my property are due to idjit neighbors who uproot all their trees and shrubery so that their mud slides down onto our property. Not much we can do about that, is there?

And following that line of thought... why live in CA at all? There are earthquakes? Why in the midwest? There are twisters and snow. Why in Florida? Hurricanes. Etc. Etc. Humans are not separate nor above nature and its forces.

Here's a local news network's slideshow w/ images that people have sent in. This is hardly "the norm" for these areas.

 

[adrianblaine]

FTR, the mudslides near my property are due to idjit neighbors who uproot all their trees and shrubery so that their mud slides down onto our property. Not much we can do about that, is there?

And following that line of thought... why live in CA at all? There are earthquakes? Why in the midwest? There are twisters and snow. Why in Florida? Hurricanes. Etc. Etc. Humans are not separate nor above nature and its forces.

Here's a local news network's slideshow w/ images that people have sent in. This is hardly "the norm" for these areas.

That is certainly not your fault and it is plain stupid that they were allowed to do that sort of thing. I'm all for allowing people to do stupid things as long as it only hurts them, but it is a pet peeve of mine for people to put others at risk.

Yes, each area has it's own set of natural disasters. The biggest problem is that our society has become very short-term driven. I find it amazing to go to Europe and walk around and in buildings that have been standing for a thousand years or more, yet today we are building junk that maybe lasts 50 years. If we were willing to spend the money and do things right the first time, we wouldn't have as many problems with this kind of thing. Either way we spend the money, up front, or to rebuild...

 

[mactastic]

Well sure, Friday was a little crazy, weatherwise... but other than that, what a disappointment.

I was ready to build an ark, but that didn't nearly qualify as "the worst storm since January of 2005".

All my contractors were digging out their sump pumps, taking precautions on all the exposed earthwork etc. They were all freaked out on Friday, but now they're all looking silly.

We sure need a good rain. Unfortunately, that wasn't it...

 

[IJ Reilly]

I don't know about "worst," but it was the largest storm since February, 2005 and more in three days than many areas got all of last year. Of course the 2-05 storm came after the monumental storm the month before, which is why it was so damaging. The runoff from this event wasn't very impressive due to the very dry soil conditions and low reservoirs.

 

[mactastic]

If it hadn't been so hyped, I wouldn't feel so cheated. Seriously, I was expecting much, much worse. And Friday was pretty good. But the second wave was supposed to be worse than the first, and that didn't happen. And the third wave never really materialized.

I think we MIGHT have gotten close to 2" of rain between Thursday and Monday. Definitely below the estimates of 2"-4"

Of course, I come in this morning to find that water is seeping through CMU mortar joints that have purportedly been sealed. Not encouraging.