Bless his heart, a neighbor volunteered to clear our driveway for us Sunday. Until Rob came by, the snow was deep and treacherous. Good neighbors are worth their weight in gold.
We took a trip into town. The surroundings were gorgeous. The highway was clear. Local roads? Not so nice. Sanded slush and more slush. Packed snow and melt. And I’m sure there’s more ice by now.
We picked up provisions we hadn’t gotten before the storms started. And now we’ll stay in until the weather people stop repeating “snow likely,” “snow showers,” and “chance of snow.”
Remember the deck chair I showed you last week here? This is what it looked like in the midst of our recent snow dump storm.
Last Friday as the storms began I took a walk while it came down in big, wet flakes. By Saturday the accumulation was deep enough to make a stroll difficult. We got about a foot (30-1/2 cm). Snow is not common here and this is much more snow than we typically get.
Everything is transformed. Yesterday was a clear, mostly sunny day but more snow is predicted throughout the week. Did someone say “cabin fever?”
It’s probably not the kind of “certifiable” you may be thinking of. Last weekend I completed three weekend courses of training to become part of the Sequim Community Emergency Response Team, or “CERT.” This is a volunteer effort to prepare a corps of community responders to assist in basic search and rescue in the event of a widespread disaster as might occur with a major earthquake.
Our group of over 20 trainees first had two intensive classroom sessions on all aspects of disaster response from organization and documentation to communications and triage.
Last Saturday we spent part of the day with field work, hands on training in first aid assessment, patient carrying, search and rescue, fire suppression, cribbing (structuring lifting of heavy objects), and forced entry (for rescue purposes, of course).
We used the Fire Department’s Maintenance, Operations and Training Facility for our training exercises, a facility well designed for the purpose.
The course is thorough and comprehensive. Just enough to teach me how much more I need to know to be effective. It will be followed by monthly classes designed for more in depth knowledge and, of course, more time to absorb the two inch stack of coursework we all took home.
Last month DH and I attended a sobering meeting on what might be expected in the event of a major earthquake in our region. Training to assist the community in case of such a disaster kicks preparedness up a notch. If you’re a local and interested in the CERT program, take a look at the Fire Department’s CERT web page.
Have your heard or read about the big earthquake in Anchorage last week? Like Anchorage, our region is parked on the edge of the “Ring of Fire,” seismic zones that circle the Pacific Ocean. Our fault line, a major one, is called the Cascadia, the only significant fault line on the Ring of Fire without a major quake in the last 50 years. Actually, the last big one was 318 years ago. Core samples showing 10,000 years of the Cascadia’s history record major quakes 41 times in the 8 and 9 point seismic range (Anchorage was 7.2). Our community is attempting to prepare for a potential 9.2-9.3 quake, 100 times the size of the recent one in Anchorage. We had a community meeting in our neighborhood yesterday to learn and strategize. The Cascadia is overdue for a quake and emergency service agencies have been studying and planning in attempt to increase survivability. It’s not hyperbole.
We are remote and the region is connected by over 100 bridges and culvert bridges, none of which are expected to survive a quake of the magnitude expected. Our roads will also be largely impassible, creating islands of communities between our rivers and culverts. Our electrical grid may be down up to a year.
Our meeting focused on necessary survival strategies and reality checks, planning, and community organizing. It was a sobering meeting about a reality many of us would prefer to never face.
For today’s Theme Day, “Music,” I present to you Halie Loren, a singer I had the pleasure of seeing perform at the Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts last May. Halie’s voice is rich and her vocal stylings are as beautiful and expressive as her face and hands as she moves and sings. Halie performs seemingly everywhere. In the last couple of months she has been seen in Cleveland, Indianapolis, Montreal, four cities in Japan, Korea, Paris, and – just last night – London.
Click here to see other interpretations of today’s theme from other City Daily Photo participants.
Last weekend was our annual Lavender Festival. I ventured out to meet friends last Friday and nipped through downtown on errands. Traffic was heavy enough to keep me home the rest of the weekend. There’s still plenty of lavender left for anyone looking for a quieter scene.
Anytime is a great time for live music but summer seems so well suited for taking it outside. And marimba music just seems so happy. Sequim Marimba, here, performed at the Juan de Fuca Festival in May. It’s always fun to catch them.
