Mayhem at Fishhawk Lake!

You may have heard about our little storm here in Portland.

Well, triple that, add a lot of trees, and you'll get what happened out at Fishhawk Lake. We heard reports of five feet of snow, road closures for downed trees, and two weeks of power outages, so we didn't venture out there before checking with the power company about whether we had power to our cabin. Yes, they assured us, we did.


When we got to the cabin, we found much of the snow had melted -- only about two and half feet were left. The debris on the roads had mostly been cleared to the sides (there was a lot of it--that first picture is our driveway--these are just little trees, mind you!) and we heard horrible stories from our neighbors who live full time at the lake of many, many days without power, and truly dire conditions where they couldn't get crews in or out of the lake, people having no electricity, and after the water purifying station was out of backup fuel, no water. 
They had to bring in the national guard to airlife emergency fuel to keep the water flowing.

This was a serious storm.

We also found we had a power line in our front yard, thanks to the gigantic tree that fell over on our power line.

Here's the tree. It  fell with such force, it ripped the line right out of our house. The electric company cut the tree off the line, but we've got to rewire it back to the house, and set the meter back on the house (that was also ripped off, thanks to that nasty tree).

But with all that serious business aside, we still found the time to enjoy the beauty of the lake and the snow. Leo did a little videoing, Annija and Kraig did some serious sledding (that's our neighbor's driveway--the perfect sledding hill!)





We also said a lot of thanks that nothing more serious happened than downed power lines. If you look at the top left corner of picture, you'll see that the huge maple beside our house split and lost a big section. If that had come down on our house...well, I shudder to think what the damage would have been like.



All in all, we are saying many prayers for the full time residents of Fishhawk, and nearby communities of Mist and Vernonia. We've had days of heavy rains since the snows, and the Nehalem River (which runs through Vernonia) is expected to crest 11 feet above flood level. The Scott-Sproles family has the luxury of fleeing back to our safe, warm, dry house in Portland. Those folks do not. Please include them in your prayers as well.


And we are also saying thanks for the beauty of Fishhawk. Even with all the disaster that community seems to attract, there's no denying that we have lucked into one of the most beautiful places in Oregon. We are thankful for every day we get to spend there, in snow, rain, mud, and sun.

love,
Kraig, Inara, Leo, and Annija