220 Jewett Blvd, PO Box 218, White Salmon, WA 98672 | 509.493.2112
By the
Trout Lake Newswriters
Sarah Burr Arnold, 395-2669
sba_352@gorge.net
Sean McGroarty, 395-9394
seanintroutlake@yahoo.com
Kira Fogarty
tlfarm2school@gmail.com
Sofie Brubaker
sofielaine@gmail.com
The massive and tenacious storm has finally gone and the power is back on, everything is open and life is good again. It was a unique experience. To quote a Trout Lake resident speaking about the storm "it was a typical Trout Lake winter all in one week."
Many, many, many thanks to the dedicated and courageous Klickitat County PUD crews assisted by crews from four or five other counties who worked through snow, rain and cold to restore the power to the town. In the town itself, there were at least seven power poles splintered, snapped or fallen that required replacement and trees hanging from wires and trees supported by wires and wires on the snow all of which the PUD crews had to repair in order to restore the power. I understand that they described the town as a "war zone." What a lot of work that the crews tackled efficiently and safely. These folks are true heroes and we thank them deeply for their skill and dedication.
We are also grateful to the owners of the TL Grocery, Little Mountain Hardware and Andy's Valley Service who through grit and determination kept their stores and the gas station open through the whole storm. It was comforting to have places to gather, to buy food and emergency supplies, and the gas necessary to power the generators and vehicles. It reduced the isolation experienced when the power was out, the telephone service was down and the storm was raging. Thank you Bev, Lisa, Laura, James, Page, Brett, Gary and Andy for your staying power and for your concern for the residents of the town.
We are likewise grateful to Beth at the post office for enduring cold, dark, and unpleasant work conditions so that the town residents could receive their mail. When other more technologically based forms of communication were impaired, it was reassuring to still have this old-fashioned form of communication available. Really brings home the need to keep functioning many different ways of communicating.
The last few houses received power yesterday making almost eight days without for some town folks. This is the longest period without power in Trout Lake since 1969 when an ice storm deprived the town of power for two weeks, according to long time residents. Other than the inconvenience of the power outage the town seems to have avoided major damage for the most part, remarkably with all of the trees that fell. Rumor has it that a tree fell on a house and a barn and a house lost a porch but no other damage has been spoken of. One resident lost a car to a tree however this damage occurred in White Salmon when the car was parked while the owner was at work.
We hope the better weather hangs around for a while so we can clean up, rest up and enjoy our electricity.
