Ice Storm

[SuncrestReef]

How is everyone faring with the ice storm?  I've read that it's much worse on the east side of Portland, but here in Beaverton it's pretty ugly.  We're lucky we haven't lost power (and I'm glad I have my standby generator if needed), but several nearby friends have been without power for most of the day.  I did lose Internet connectivity for about 2 hours today, and as an Internet nerd, those were the longest 2 hours of my life...

Hopefully all of your tanks are surviving.

Yesterday:

Today:

[AquaKey]

I'm here in Tualatin. About 2" of ice. Power just went out for the 2nd time. A bit stressful 😟

[Zoolander]

I'm in SW Portland and have been fine. Lot of snow but minimal ice. Drove into Lake O today and it's a disaster down there. Most of the city doesn't have power and there are trees and power lines everywhere. Crazy what 5-6 miles can do for a weather difference. 

[psychofireman]

This is the view from my place in salmon creek 

[Cobalt]

Ugh oh man. Lights flickering again and I can hear the pole mounted transformers poppin in the neighborhood. Fingers crossed...

just north of Lake O, Marshall park area

Edited February 15, 2021 by Cobalt

[danlu_gt]

We got a lot of snow in Redmond, WA.

[Emerald525]

We have been very lucky to not lost power but we did lose our mailbox to a car sliding down the hill. We had fun watching the cars with no chains and front wheel drive try to make it up the hill. 
 

[EMeyer]

So weird, theres ice storms from Oregon to Texas but here in this little pocket between Corvallis and Eugene, it hasnt even dropped below freezing. 

Literally, not a drop of snow or ice. Still got the power outage though. 

[obrien.david.j]

2 hours ago, Emerald525 said:

We have been very lucky to not lost power but we did lose our mailbox to a car sliding down the hill. We had fun watching the cars with no chains and front wheel drive try to make it up the hill. 

Went for a drive yesterday, to swap a frag for a shrimp with @sharambil.   Crunchy, but mostly mushy.  But that underlayer of ice in dark spots.  Number of trees down around us and what surprised me is now many had really shallow roots.  Seemed like <1' under the surface.

Took a more scenic route home and got stopped on the the one narrow/hill section.   Someone picked yesterday to move, and had a big uhaul truck.  luckily we were following for a distance and saw them get stuck within few hundred yards of top of the hill.   We could still turn around and go back.     

[Higher Thinking]

11 hours ago, SuncrestReef said:

How is everyone faring with the ice storm?  I've read that it's much worse on the east side of Portland, but here in Beaverton it's pretty ugly.  We're lucky we haven't lost power (and I'm glad I have my standby generator if needed), but several nearby friends have been without power for most of the day.  I did lose Internet connectivity for about 2 hours today, and as an Internet nerd, those were the longest 2 hours of my life...

Hopefully all of your tanks are surviving.

Yesterday:

Today:

Here's a candid photo of @SuncrestReef after two hours without internet. Right when he had all but lost hope. Luckily, it was restored just in time!

[Emerald525]

10 minutes ago, obrien.david.j said:

Went for a drive yesterday, to swap a frag for a shrimp with @sharambil.   Crunchy, but mostly mushy.  But that underlayer of ice in dark spots.  Number of trees down around us and what surprised me is now many had really shallow roots.  Seemed like <1' under the surface.

Took a more scenic route home and got stopped on the the one narrow/hill section.   Someone picked yesterday to move, and had a big uhaul truck.  luckily we were following for a distance and saw them get stuck within few hundred yards of top of the hill.   We could still turn around and go back.     

Yeah there’s a layer of ice out there now. Just saw a four runner slide sideways and the owners bail and go back up the hill. Nice view at the top but i am glad I’m on the bottom of the hill.

[Cobalt]

Woke up at 3am to our power out. Watched the fireworks show out the window of yellow and green flashes as other transformers exploded and went offline. Very fight club-ish soothing with society collapsing. 
 

Was boiling water this morning to keep the tank warm and luckily heard fro a family member with a generator that have power and don’t need it. Generator in the back now plus a six pack from new seasons so we back in business. If anyone does need help near C&C let me know.

[sharambil]

2 hours ago, obrien.david.j said:

Went for a drive yesterday, to swap a frag for a shrimp with @sharambil.   Crunchy, but mostly mushy.  But that underlayer of ice in dark spots.  Number of trees down around us and what surprised me is now many had really shallow roots.  Seemed like <1' under the surface.

Took a more scenic route home and got stopped on the the one narrow/hill section.   Someone picked yesterday to move, and had a big uhaul truck.  luckily we were following for a distance and saw them get stuck within few hundred yards of top of the hill.   We could still turn around and go back.     

Glad you made it home safe and thanks for the awesome frag!

Had to drive to downtown Portland from Beaverton and was pleasantly surprised at how clean the roadways were. Small streets in downtown were quite bad however.

[cjmdh]

Salem was hit hard on Friday night and Saturday morning.  No snow, but lots of ice.  It's 50 degrees now.  We also watched the fireworks as trees took out power lines.  Had a power bump and that is all.  We lost the tops of a couple of trees and the neighbors tree took out our covered storage area.  Several houses had trees go through their roof.  Saturday morning when we went out to inspect the noise from all of the trees cracking and falling was creepy.  I went to get gas for the chainsaw yesterday and all of the gas stations except two were out of gas and the lines at those two stations were crazy.

[Cobalt]

As of this morning large swaths of SW didn’t have power but from Hillsdale to Jesuit High where we saw our first traffic light. Got gas there. Generator is humming along making a rukus. New neighbors probably hate us thinking we’re using it to watch TV. 😂

 

Ramping the temp up to 80 last night paid off, by the time the generator was plugged in after about 8 hours out the tank temp was only 74. Lots of blankets on the tank at 3am though. 

[albertareef]

10 hours ago, Emerald525 said:

We have been very lucky to not lost power but we did lose our mailbox to a car sliding down the hill. We had fun watching the cars with no chains and front wheel drive try to make it up the hill. 
 

Hey Kim - didn’t that happen before right after you moved in?  No ice that time either as I recall 

[Emerald525]

6 minutes ago, albertareef said:

Hey Kim - didn’t that happen before right after you moved in?  No ice that time either as I recall 

Yes second time in less than a year. There was a little bit of ice on the road that time and I assume the guy was drunk.

[albertareef]

We got lucky this time (so far). Didn’t lose power but were stuck until this afternoon when I dug out the AWD and slid down to the grocery store. Last time I tried to fire up the generator it didn’t work so glad I didn’t have to rely on that this time around. Need to get that sorted!

[junior]

Lost power all morning and was doing hot water bag swaps with an air stone until afternoon but power back and all is well. 

[Reeftank225]

Power went out in happy valley/Damascus area twice for a few hours. I already had generator by garage and extension cord ran so I can quickly turn off n on when needed...used for about 6 hours in total for last 3 days. I could hear tree branches cracking all night so had to keep watch. Bombs of ice falling from trees hitting the yard. Still a little sleppy. Worst is over now so I think we are good. Thank goodness! Hope you guys are doing well!!!!!

[PNWaquatics]

I lost power early Saturday morning and am still waiting for it to turn back on. I had to search around for a generator and luckily found one so my tanks are going strong.
 

My parents lost power late Friday night. They also have a generator to keep my dad’s tank going. No estimation on when the power is coming back on, and we’re hoping the generators can keep going indefinitely. So far, neither of us have lost any thing (though my Midas Blenny did decide to jump in the overflow during the 6 hours it took me to track down the generator). 

Edited February 16, 2021 by PNWaquatics

[Manny Tavan]

It’s 2021 in maybe the third best country in the world and we still don’t have underground power line...

 

let that sink in

Edited February 16, 2021 by Manny Tavan

[SuncrestReef]

1 minute ago, Manny Tavan said:

It’s 2021 in maybe the third best country in the world and we still don’t have underground power line...

 

let that sink in

All the wires are underground in my neighborhood, but unfortunately they are fed by above ground wires further away, so still vulnerable.  Just glad I invested in the whole-house generator for these situations.

[junior]

3 minutes ago, Manny Tavan said:

It’s 2021 in maybe the third best country in the world and we still don’t have underground power line...

 

let that sink in

Cost is about 1,000,000 per mile in dense urban centers and PGE revenue is only 2 billion, revenue not profit. I wouldn’t hold your breath as ice storms only do this every 4-5 years. 

[Emerald525]

1 hour ago, junior said:

Cost is about 1,000,000 per mile in dense urban centers and PGE revenue is only 2 billion, revenue not profit. I wouldn’t hold your breath as ice storms only do this every 4-5 years. 

Yeah that doesn’t surprise me. I had to hire an electrician just to inspect a wire in my attic when I sold the house last year. I took the picture had show him where the wire was and spent maybe 30 minutes in the house and it cost over 300 dollars.