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Windy night, eh?
From the County Dept of Emergency Management: A high wind squall rolled through the County last night bringing 70 mph wind gusts. The winds lasted about 25 minutes but were substantial and according to a citizen in Pacific Beach, sounded like a freight train. Another citizen called the County wanting to know if a tornado was occurring and should she move her family to her basement.
Although wind gusts were predicted to be in the 40-45 mph range, the event developed suddenly. Even though the event was impacting the County, the National Weather Service did not activate the NOAA All Hazard Weather Radios for notification of the event. Grays Harbor Emergency Management has contacted the National Weather Service and has a preliminary explanation of the sequence of events and how they played out however, we are awaiting an official report from the National Weather Service in Seattle.
Grays Harbor County Emergency Management does know that at 10:13pm, there were no wind gusts recorded at Bowerman Field in Hoquiam. At 10:28pm the gusts were 35 mph, at 10:50pm they gusted to 70mph, at 10:57pm, gusts to 70mph, at 11:03pm gusts diminished to 45 mph and at 11:08pm the event had passed out of the County.
The status of the Chehalis River is that the River is still rising at 20.92 feet. It is expected to crest at 10:00pm tonight at 21.03 feet. It is expected to drop below flood stage at 3:00pm Wednesday. At 21 feet, the Chehalis River in Grays Harbor will flood low pasture lands and some roads. High tidal levels at Aberdeen will worsen flooding along the lower reaches. Aberdeen high tides are Tuesday at 7:31pm at 7.21 feet and then on Wed at 7:53am at 9.54 feet.
Great link CAC, thanks
This site really tells the story. http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/mesowest/getobext.php?wfo=sew&sid=OCS&num=48&raw=0&dbn=m All the gusts are marked in Blue or Red to identify when it was really bad 30 feet up at the PUD facility in the center of OS.
I’m the “freight train” who notified the county. My windows were “breathing” in & out. I checked Weatherbug at that moment in PB and it was reporting winds at 17mph with gusts at 27mph, and the alert was about the Chehalis river only.
You have to keep reporting these events to the county’s Emergency Management to help them get Seattle & the state to finally start listening to us.
BTW Great job Tom on relaying the reports!
hard to say what went wrong with the alert system. maybe it wasnt bad enough to alert us? hard to say not knowing.
personally, i use weather bug that can be downloaded online. it does alerts based on the area you choose and it hasnt let me down yet. often i get alerts to areas around ocean shores that dont really apply but could head our way.
best download i ever used!
So, as I understand here, Nat Weather Service claims they didn’t have time to activate the NOAA radio alert system? Is this another example of too many goverment agencies trying to protect us and a slip through the beuracratic cracks? Are there any other weather events coming shortly that we might need to know about? Whats the status on those weather bouy’s? are they working out there in the heavy seas? Whats the status on the Doppler radar that is supposed to tell us about high wind events? I’ll probably get flamed for my comments/questions but if I don’t ask, ya know others might or are asking themselves. Sounds like it was a “rouge” wind event.
i have to say that until this month, my family and i have been living in rv’s for close to 13 years.
although i heard the winds and could see the trees swaying in the wind, for the first time in as long as i can remember, i didnt feel the house shake and what a blessing that was!!!
its good to be back in ocean shores and in such a nice little home!!!