Madness Factor

So the storm proved to be worse than predicted — four people died, several homes were damaged or destroyed, and over a million folks lost power. (That poor woman in my last post who was stuck in her flooded basement was one of the people who died. Her name was Kate Fleming, and she was a well-known voice-over talent. Read more about her here.)

I feel really fortunate that we never lost power (!), that no trees fell on our house, and that our basement remained dry despite the swamp-like conditions in our backyard. We lost our internet connection for a bit yesterday — I’m not even sure if it had anything to do with the storm — but that was the worst of it. This event has reminded me just how lucky we are in general; we have shelter, food, clean water … and a bunch of shit we don’t need, all of which, under normal circumstances, we take for granted. Very lucky indeed (knocking wood).

This page at the Seattle PI has a collection of stories related to the storm.