Checking on our left-coast folks...

[vicki]

Many of our left-coast VBCers may not have power or net access right now, due to all the storms (LRK just got power back a little while ago herself), but we're thinking about you. If you are around and have power and net-access, let us know you're okay when you get a chance. I'm sorry y'all are in the midst of such horrendous weather! Stay safe and as dry as possible!

[Kiyomi]

I second that! Stay dry! Stay home! And most important take care of yourselves!

[Strawberry Curls]

Checking in from about 35 miles south of Los Angeles, we are still here. No power outages so far, but TV cable has been in and out all night. I have been watching a DVD so I didn't notice but DH was put out, some college bowl or other, I think. Winds are blowing a gale and the rain is coming down, but we aren't near any canyons or mountains where they are having mudslides and flash-floods. We have had drought for two years, now this.

Thanks for checking up on us, we left-coasters have weather problems of a slightly different sort. Stay high and dry all.

Alice

[vicki]

We have had drought for two years, now this.


When it rains, it really does pour, doesn't it? <Fines self a quarter for cliche-use> I'm glad y'all are away from the most dangerous areas! Sorry re: your DH's bowl-less state, however--that's very frustrating, I know. :(

With the weekend here, I hope you all can stay home with a hot cup of something yummy and read Touchstone. :) BTW--another excellent review in--this one from the Wall St. Journal (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119948943746968725.html?mod=2_1167_1). Yay!

[tangential1]

The email I just replied to only told me at 4:30pm it was starting to rain heavily. And they showed the tree going over during a news broadcast in Sacramento.

That would be where I'm at, actually. Or rather, was yesterday. I work in downtown Sacramento and live about 12 miles west, so getting to and from work yesterday was no fun. My bus was swaying like it wanted to topple over when we crossed the causway (which goes over the rice flats). It was pretty near impossible to walk outside and there were so many felled trees in the streets that they had to shut down the light rail system.:eek: Our executive director sent an email out just after lunch telling everyone to go home as soon as they could (transportation allowing). I caught a few news reports before leaving work that gave a maximum wind speed of about 70 mph (in the morning and dying down in the afternoon). They also said that nearly 900,000 residents between the coast and us were without power yesterday. Mostly from downed transmission lines.

We just got our power back at about 5am this morning, out since about 8am yesterday. We found out at around 7pm that some of downtown Davis had power and the storm was at a lull so we ran down to spend a few hours at Borders with their lights and hot beverages...along with half the town, it seemed.

Safe and sound, though. Nothing too bad to deal with other than boredom.:)

[Strawberry Curls]

With the weekend here, I hope you all can stay home with a hot cup of something yummy and read Touchstone. :) BTW--another excellent review in--this one from the Wall St. Journal (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119948943746968725.html?mod=2_1167_1). Yay!

That is a really good review and doesn't giveaway half the plot. I'm still fuming over the "review" in January Mag. by Dick Adler, the one that was linked to Ms. King's Mutterings. It gave way too much of the plot. I'm happy for Ms. King that the book is garnering such glowing reviews, but there is a difference between a review and a plot synopsis. I don't read reviews on sites like Amazon.com because there usually tell all and I would rather read the book and find out for myself. Anyway, LOVED Touchstone :D and it deserves all the praise in the world and I enjoy reading the reviews, now that I have read the book. Just my personal rant, one of those pet peeves.

The Los Angeles area wasn't hit as hard as Northern California, it would seem. High winds and rain, certainly, but we seem to have gotten through the night without too much damage and now the rains have tapered off. The rain total for my area of the L.A. basin was just a bit over an inch, it was heavier in the foothills and mountains, I understand, but I'm by the beach.

[tangential1]

If anyone is interested, here are a couple of news reports:

San Francisco Chronicle (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/05/MN87U9KSU.DTL)

Sac Bee (http://www.sacbee.com/749/story/611736.html)

Sac Bee video footage of storm damage (http://videos.sacbee.com/vmix_hosted_apps/p/media?id=1635275)

[2bnallegory]

After the storm left California it headed out to Utah and we got kicked around by the wind, the back fence was down and many shingles lost on the roof. Don't think the storm was as bad out here, but going around town lots of trees and fences down and some houses lost lots of siding.

Only inconvenience on our part with the fence down is that our chickens have to be cooped because of neighbors large dog.

[Kiyomi]

I live just west of Ontario CA and East of LA and I got a call from my mum today asking if I was okay because some couple got swept away in a car at 1:30 AM and they had rescued the husband but not the wife :rolleyes: Apparently she decided that it was probably us. Not only am I generally in bed by then but I have no idea what street that could have happened on, it must have been on the edges of the city because the main streets that I drive on were redone so that they wouldn't flash flood and apparently the couple who got swept away were in a flash flood zone with signs and things. It's a crazy world.