Bad storm, how are you doing?

We had so much wind last night stuff blew all over the place; huge flowerpots got knocked over and broke.
Scary, and we're not even done!
Everybody ok out there?

CC

Hi, my husband just called, he's in Santa Clara for a job interview this morning.... he said the wind was incredibly bad. He's supposed to fly home tonight, I wonder if the storm will be too bad??

Hope you didn't lose too many pots!

Oh dear...I've been out covering up a lot of my seedlings with upside down clear plastic storage containers and wondering if they will get blown and do more damage than just letting everything get beaten down and drowned. maybe the storm will lose some of its 'gusto' by the time it gets down here. Many things to think about....

As of 7:45 this morning when I left for work, I just had a few plants that blew over (but all my pots are plastic so nothing broke), a few tall shrubs that looked like they might be getting knocked over by the wind, and my satellite dish was knocked out of commission. Who knows what's happened since then! I'll find out in a few hours I guess.

I think we have your sunshine today - but the wind is picking up... tomorrow forecast is rain, thunderstorms & wind - so it must be hitting us a little bit, too.

Hope everyone is ok - and your gardens! (and satellite dish-will they come fix it/put up a new one?)

We have flooding and power outages here. Lots of debris being blown around and trees losing branches. There are some road closures in my neighbourhood due to downed power lines too.

I've had a very heavy concrete pot blown of my front step and the rim is a bit smashed but the plant is ok. One part of my garden is under water and all of the lovely topsoil is being washed away. How does one repair this? :-(

Winds are kicking up here to 45 MPH. My whole yard is flooded and I'm hoping it doesn't start creeping into the house. I went out to make sure the city's drains were unblocked----they are but just completely overloaded with water.

Tootsie, your DH might do better hunkering down at a hotel (hopefully at Cisco's expense) tonight!!! A friend who works at the IBM facility nearby says they've had leaks all over the building today. My DH is in Reno with my son for the week, and they're gonna get slammed with the snowstorm this turns into. I hope they can get home on Sunday as planned. Yes, we needed rain, but not the whole year's worth at once!!!!

Wow, your yard is flooded? How much rain is falling -


ooooh our power just flickered !!!!! our lines are underground, so I hope everything is ok - wind here is in the 40;s

* sorry for the quick post, I thought we were going to lose power.

Yes, I'm sure Cisco will pay for his hotel if he has to stay (they bought him a very nice $$$$$ dinner at Parcel 104 last night, with a nice bottle of wine) ... Haven't heard how today went yet, but he liked the gentleman he met last night.

Hope your DH & son make it home okay!

A LOT! I think what I'm reading on our home weather station is 4 1/2 inches today....so far! Power's flickering here, too---our PCs are on battery backup. It's been on all day (our lines are underground, too, thank goodness) but I'm scared to go work in my studio since this is its first winter, and there's a big redwood tree just to one side that's been shedding branches for the past 2 hours. Sigh. Guess I'll work on my family tree stuff----today's my last day of vacation, and I'm determined to enjoy it!

Things were bad enough that they closed our offices and sent everyone home around 1 this afternoon so that people would have an easier time getting home with all the traffic, etc.

It has rained a ton today--there's a low area behind my house which becomes a seasonal wetland every year as we get into rainy season--it becomes a decent size pond by springtime most years. Up until today it was completely dry (maybe a bit muddy in the bottom, but no visible water), then when I came home from work today the water level was the highest I've ever seen it (I've only been here a year and a half, but still for it to totally fill up like that in one day is pretty incredible). Fortunately I live on a hill so even the lowest part of my yard is raised up a lot above where the water could get to so no flooding danger here.

I am really sad though, I have a gorgeous Buddleja asiatica, it gets the most wonderfully fragrant flowers in the wintertime. It's about 12 ft tall and was just starting to bloom, and I came home from work and it's basically flat on the ground with lots of branches broken off. Once it stops pouring rain I'll go out and see if it's bent beyond repair or whether there are some branches that are still OK. It's a tough plant so I'm sure it'll regrow from the base next year but I hate to cut it down when it was just getting ready to bloom!

ecrane, the photo in plantfiles looks a lot like my white buddleia (although it doesn't bloom this time of year here). If it's in the same family, don't worry---I cut mine WAY back every year and they love it. I have one trained as a tree, and another as a bush and they are EXTREMELY resilient.

Mine is B. asiatica, your white one is probably a white cultivar of B. davidii, that's the buddleja that's the most common (I have a collection of all sorts of other less common buddleja species) This one blooms in winter rather than summer and has a MUCH better fragrance than B. davidii. I know it'll grow back, what I'm bummed about is that it was just starting to bloom, and I had been looking forward to enjoying its wonderful fragrance, so I don't want to have to wait a whole year to enjoy it!

The news just mentioned that 1,000,000 are without power in the west....could I have heard that right? Wow. It hasn't hit here yet and one weatherman has downgraded the previous forecasts to less wind and rain as was previously forecast. Hope he's right. I'm so sorry for all you guys going through all of that up there. I think I'll get the candles out just in case.....

oh ecrane, sorry about your Buddleja asiatica - darn, I hope it will be okay. 4 1/2" THAT IS SERIOUS DOWNPOUR - unbeleivable, no wonder the pond filled up !!!

Is the wind still bad ? -my hummingbird feeders are swaying like crazy here, but the power has held so far..

DH is ??maybe on the plane home - haven't heard.. but he did say Cisco told him they will be giving him an offer. Looks like I will be a "California Girl" ! I'm excited!

We got clobbered here in Marin.

Two large containers blew over , one had a sculpture in it. Several pieces broke but nothing that can't be replaced .
The huge old bougainvillea at the front blew down. It has dire erectile dysfunction. I had to cut about 2/3's of it away from itself so it would not take my gutters down with the rest of it.

Big knarly branch fell on the greenhouse but it did not break any of the poly-carbonate glazing

Some areas in the garden are at a point of saturation and are refusing to drain off. Lots of sitting water on the paths and in low areas.

All the Brugs are completely denuded of their leaves . Nothing but skeleton like sticks.

Bananas look like they have gone thru the shredder.

The yard looks like a mix of flower and foliage confetti - shredded bits of flowers plastered and sticking to the side of a wood fence and branches , twigs and tree limbs scattered across the beds .

Lots of broken branches .

Gonna be busy getting things cleaned up.

erectile dysfunction ha ha ha hahha - you are too funny !!!! Hope most of your plants make it thru ok - some maybe enjoy the beating !

we get soaked all the time here, it's amazing the plants can take it.

The creeks are very high here, the flood alarm went off, but it didn't flood badly.
Half of Marin is without power, 101 was closed off for hours, trees blew over, broken branches all over the streets.
Part of the schoolfence by the creek is gone.
A mess all over.
The worst is over now, I hope!
I lost some really big pots, they rolled all the way into the street!
All and all not too much damage in the garden, but water is sitting on the grass.

Good to know nobody got hurt!

CC

Our is just starting down here. About 1 1/2 hours ago. I'm hoping that it does not hit us as hard, but that remains to be seen. I can remember when I used to enjoy storms....

the rain woke me up this morning - it is really coming down! We have had a few big trees fall into houses around here (thankfully not our neighborhood) ... its been raining her for a couple of weeks and the ground is pretty saturated.

I'm going to be yawning all day !

It's sunny here right now, at least for the moment. I thought it was supposed to rain all day so I'm pretty surprised to see it nice out. But it looks cloudier west of me so maybe the rain is coming later. At least it seems likethe nasty wind is gone for now.

Lots of branches down here, but nothing serious in my little "queendom". Thank goodness I took down my euc and willow last fall, or things would have been worse. I'll be replacing them with smaller, less-weedy trees! Fortunately the yurtio came thru it OK, and the 6" of water that was standing in the yard drained off overnight.

DD, sorry for all the damage at your place----I've looked at pictures here on DG and it's so spectacular.

ecrane, I wish I hadn't developed an allergy to the budleias, or I'd get one like yours, which sounds delightful. I love the darn things, but I have to wear a mask to prune them or I can't breathe for hours.

I wonder if you'd be allergic to all the species or if it's just the davidii's that you have a problem with? I don't know how different their pollen is. I went out there to pick up the pieces of it today, and while the biggest trunk was completely snapped off, there were two smaller ones that were just bent but not broken. So I straightened them back up and just hope they weren't bent to the point where they're going to die before they bloom. They have a bunch of buds on them, so as long as we don't get a bunch more wind I might still get to enjoy some blooms.

Oh, I hope you do! It's actually the "dust" from the leaves that sets me off---all the davidii varieties I have (about 6 of them) have the same characteristic. The monarchs love them, so I put up with it.

Well, if you ever want to come over and test whether you're allergic to this one just let me know! I never noticed its leaves being dusty, but I never noticed it on the couple davidii's that I have either.

The weather forecast for SF Bay Area shows a break on Monday with partly cloudly weather, but basically continued rain and wind through Thursday Jan 10th. "They" are expecting 4" - 8" of rainfall in this area from these storms.

Hopefully things will ease up before the ground saturates and the hills start moving.

Yesterday's wind blew the roofs and panels off the greenhouses at our local community garden.

Three of our skylights decided to leak - bummer. Other than that it's OK here. We are pretty protected from the wind here but I imagine that the full gutters will get worse. We lost power for 4 days in the last big really big storm and then they did a lot of work on our power so hopefully it will hold.

And to think that they were predicting a dry year. My ligularias and LA iris will be happy to get water this summer I guess.

It still could be a dry year--might not rain any more the rest of the winter for all we know! It would be nicer if we'd get the rain spread out more over the whole winter, rather than getting a whole year's worth of it it in one or two storms!

Sure can't argue with that. I really feel for all of those folks without power.

We were very fortunate - no major damage - an arch trellis came down & broke, lots of bits of foliage all over & our drainage gully is doing its job & flowing like mad (lovely sound). We haven't ventured out to the back of the property, yet, to check if we lost any trees in our wilder area.

Like you, Iampigeon, we're thanking our lucky stars that we did some major tree cutting last year!

DD, so sorry to hear of all your damage - geez, frost one year, then wind the next - what happened to our (almost) tropical weather? (This is Liz in Emerald Hills).

Thankfully, we have power back, for good it seems - we were without power for about 15 hours yesterday; this morning, it was intermittent. Glad we had lots of candles in the house - made for a romantic evening & even brought my teenager upstairs to socialize for the evening, so it wasn't all bad! LOL!...

Hope everyone is staying safe!

Liz

We had another gullywasher of a thunderstorm here yesterday, but not nearly the wind that we had on Friday, thank goodness. My whole yard flooded again---and I was out in my studio when it started hailing and I had to come inside the house. I guess I'm not sure I trust those triple-walled polycarbonate panels we paid a fortune for LOL! Looks like we may have another one on the way, but for now everything's drained off and it's just very, very gloomy this morning.

Nothing here in the Oakland hills except a lot of rain. Winds weren't even that bad here, surprisingly enough; sometimes my pots blow over but not this time. Guess we were lucky! We didn't even lose power, just a flicker of the lights a few times.

here lots of rain, which is very much needed. A lot of wind a few days ago, today, cloudly but calm, I think it is suppose to rain again today. I will say the ducks are really enjoying it:) Good luck everyone and stay dry.

Not bad here either...trees still standing,etc....just lots of much needed rain. I'd like to see more of these through the winter, just without the winds and problems...is that too much to ask?

Never too much to ask. We were without power for about four hours last night. I dreaded it coming because if the power goes out here it usually isn't restored for days. I'm feeling very thankful for hot water and heat right now.

Glad your power is back, it is really an inconvenience .... why can't it go out while were sleeping, be back on by morning?

The worst should be past now, don't you think?

Sherry, did you get that cell that came through about 1pm? Thunder, lightning, and about a foot of sideways rain in a few minutes! It was, as my brother would put it, a real frog-strangler. lol Until that, we've just had steady soaking rain. DH has been out digging ditches and laying water & power cables for the past two days. Our concrete is nice and soft for digging now. :-)

My mom & sister got some snow in Eugene last night, but have had no power outages. Brother near Yosemite has a lot of rain, but no real problems.

Yep.....that was truly 'Rolling Thunder'! Quick bit of rain with it. I think all of the rain has been coming in sideways 'cause both of my carts of firewood under umbrellas are soaked....lol...I've only gone out to collect some seeds and make a run to the store. Where does your brother live close to Yosemite?

Another storm was supposed to be following on the heels of the last one. Last nights weather report showed the satellite images all the way across the Gulf of Alaska. The storms were lined up and heading over. Today the weather forecast is milder.
Guess the other storms decided to slow down a bit.