Yesterday’s windstorm was one for the ages. Wind gusts, including one recorded at 96mph in Ferndale, heavy rains just prior and high tides all combined to wreck havoc in various forms on the area.
There was plenty of time to prepare as the National Weather Service issued a special statement days before forewarning of the wind event. The next day an advisory went out warning the winds were likely to pick up about midnight and continue until about sunrise on Thursday morning.
About 10:30pm Wednesday, Ferndale saw a noticeably quick increase in sustained winds and gusts. Within an hour, sustained winds were above 20mph and gusts were approaching 40mph with a few already in the upper 40s. Sustained winds hovered around 25 with 50mph gusts from midnight until after 3am when things started to get exciting.
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After 3am, wind gusts were between 50 and 75mph, with the strongest clocked at 96mph, over the next seven hours. Sustained winds during that period were between 30 and 45mph. It wasn’t until after 10am the winds began to diminish and it took until 2pm until the gusts stayed below 30mph.
The saturated soil made trees more vulnerable under the stresses of these high winds and many fell with some taking out power lines and even the poles too. During the early morning hours law enforcement and fire units were scrambling to respond to multiple reports of trees and power lines down in roadways, in some cases small fires.
Coinciding with the winds were high tides made even higher due to the low atmospheric pressure and pushed by the high winds. Neighbors with waterfront property found their bulkheads being overrun and, in the case of the Sandy Point neighborhood, roads were flooded to the point of being impassable.
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Of course, with power lines and poles down comes power outages. Thousands of neighbors in and around Ferndale were without power before they even awoke.
The hardest hit neighborhood included the core retail area east of the Nooksack River on Main Street and LaBounty Drive as well as businesses and residential neighborhood east of I-5 from Paradise Road down to Slater Road.
Businesses had endured several days of no power back in August and for most, especially grocers and restaurants with refrigerated perishable products, that was an expense they were not looking to repeat. When official word arrived that they could expect to be in the dark until at least 6pm, they started preparing.
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Click for more informationDrivers found themselves on Main Street with no functioning traffic signals east of Pioneer Bridge. While most drivers were alert to the fact this meant treating the intersections as 4-way stops, Ferndale police positioned themselves visibly around the intersections as a reminder and made contact with those who needed a reminder.
But just before noon, the traffic signals unexpectedly became lit again, as did lights and equipment at businesses and residences in the core outage area.
Unfortunately for others in outlying areas, they had to wait many more hours, until the next day for some, before their power was restored.
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Click for more informationAnd, as this article was being written, a high wind watch was issued for two days from today with a forecast calling for gusts up to 60mph. Here we go again.
The video below shows the tidal surge coming over the bulkhead of a Sandy Point neighbor’s deck. The gap in the bulkhead normally houses bolted on aluminum stairs but they have been swept away.
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Click for more informationIf anyone happens to see aluminum stairs in Lummi Bay, please let me know.The waves ripped it, bolts and all, from my deck's bulkhead this morning (Saltspring Drive). Even if it is found, I don't know how I could get it back to my place (or if its condition would warrant such action). I am just curious as to where it has ended up. I have included a video of the waves hitting my deck and gap where the stairs used to be.
Posted by Mary Chamberlin on Thursday, March 10, 2016