Chorus:
Oh, blow the man down, bullies, blow the man down
Way hey blow the man down
Oh, blow the man down, bullies, blow him away
Give me some time to blow the man down!
This chorus to the old sea shanty goes back to the 1800s when sailors would sing it as they raised sails on their ships. Here in British Columbia in the year 2012, Blow The Man Down took on a whole new meaning.
Downed tree rests on shed roof
Early Monday morning hurricane force winds hit B.C. Here, on Vancouver Island alone, the massive storm left over 100 000 people without power for a number of hours. In Courtenay, at one point, there wasn’t a single electrical service operational. As I write this to you at 03.00 on Wednesday morning, our street and a neighbouring crescent are without power. Many other outlying communities and communities on smaller islands are also without power.
Weather forecasters had been saying they predicted strong winds would come, but what actually arrived was way more than any of us expected. Indeed, though we have lived in the valley for 44 years, we have never experienced winds of such intensity. At 04.30 I woke to the sounds of our plastic re-cycling bins being blown around on the rear deck of the house. I got up to set them straight and weight them down. The sound of the wind blowing through the fir trees surrounding us sounded like a train going through. It gave me some idea of what the people of the American mid-west experienced a few weeks ago as tornados went through that region.
I couldn’t go back to sleep. I was very much awake and fully alert. I had powerful thoughts in my mind. What if some poor souls are at sea in Georgia Strait or off the Pacific coast of the island? What if someone had been unable to find a good, sheltered harbour in which to ride out the storm? I decided to hit the living room and pray for the Lord to protect those at sea, and the rest of us landlubbers from the effects of this monster. As I sat in the living room I heard quite a loud kerthump, and supposed a large branch of a tree might have come down nearby. When daylight came, and I was able to venture outside, I saw that a large tree, about sixteen inches diameter at the base and about 60 feet tall had come to rest across the roof of our garden shed. The wind was still roaring and heavy rain was being driven horizontally by the gale. The tree had come to rest on the shed, but had missed our own house and the new house being built next door. I thanked the Lord for answered prayer. About 09.00 we heard a massive bang and our power went off. A tree had fallen on an electrical transformer located on the neighbouring crescent, and power to our two streets disappeared.
Later that day, when the wind had died, and the rain stopped, two angels came to visit us. Our neighbours Pat and Yvan came to see if we were doing well as they’d seen the tree across the shed. Thirty minutes later Yvan re-appeared with his chain-saw and other tools in his wheelbarrow, and we set about removing the tree.
As the day wore on, reports began filtering through to us about extensive damage to property around the valley. Large sail and power boats had been torn from moorages and ended up on the shore. Power lines were down all over the valley and on neighbouring islands. B.C. Hydro crews were struggling to restore power first to the hospital, fire departments and police station, though their generators were providing emergency power. Gradually, these amazing crews got power back on in the major centres of the valley.
We heard that down island, the road over the high ground of the Malahat region had been in a white-out situation, with heavy snow blocking the road. Crews eventually got traffic moving again fairly quickly. I was told that our ski resort, Mt. Washington, had received over two feet of fresh snow in an overnight time-span. It was reported that winds had crested to over 130 K.p.h. at the local airport. On the Beaufort Scale hurricane force winds are rated at 118 K.p.h. I believe, but as the wind in this storm wasn’t continuous, but gusting, I believe it was rated as a tropical storm.
Monday evening, Pat and Yvan insisted we come to them for a meal. We accepted gratefully and she fed us so well. We were with them until almost 23.00 and went home equipped with a power pack from Yvan, which enabled us to power two lights, so we could read. I got the wood stove going and soon we were quite comfortable. Unlike the victims of the Japanese tsunami, we still had a house to shelter us! All problems are relative!
Tuesday evening, our youngest son Tim cooked us meal and then we distributed the contents of our chest freezer to friends and family around the valley who had power and freezer space. We had then been told power would be restored probably on Wednesday around 16.00
As of now, Wednesday at 18.06 we have not heard of a single death due to the storm and life is slowly returning to normal. And oh, by the way, our own power was restored three hours ago!
Goodbye for now and God bless.
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