Hi Gang, Last year, it was the rain/wind/ice storms that caused over 1,000,000 people to lose power, trees, and lives in the Seattle area. This year, it was a massive rain storm and wind that hit Oregon and Washington earlier this week. I trust you have seen the pictures and articles of the current storm and conditions in our area along with the kudos to the Amateur Radio community for providing the communications links in the hard-hit communities. After spending the weekend at our Vancouver, WA QTH (with Shirley wielding the whip, encouraging me to finally finish the kitchen remodel that started in early 2005), we got back on the road to Seattle sometime after midnight on the morning of December 3. The forecast of a severe windstorm and "some" rain was on my mind as we began the 175 mile trip to our Seattle condo. The first 20 miles were relatively calm. Then, we ran (literally) into gusts of 50-60 MPH on I-5 just north of Woodland, WA. What impressed me was the volume of rain blowing sideways. I haven't seen this kind of water since we left the midwest nearly 25 years ago. Around 2:30 AM, we motored through the communities of Chehalis and Centralia, just half-way to Seattle. Even then, we could see water beginning to collect at the side of the road. About 2 hours later, we finally docked in the condo parking lot, listening to the wind and continuing to watch the sideways blowing rain. Just 1/2 mile to the west of the condo near the Puget Sound shore, a large mudslide washed away a road (fortunately the driver of the car it captured escaped). An apartment complex just north of us in a lower area was under 8 feet of water! But, most of the damage and flooding was in the area we drove through in the early morning with over 10 feet of the muddy mess covering I-5 where we were traveling a few hours earlier. Yes, it rains a lot in the Pacific Northwest but most of this is mist or light rain. Here at the condo, we had 4" of rain in 24 hours. Just south of our place (2 miles) and closer to the Sound, the paper reported over 5 1/2 inches in the same time period. The highway (I-5) is still closed and many homes in SW Washington and NW Oregon are still awaiting searches and hopefully rescues of people and animals. To get back to Vancouver/Portland areas, one has to take a 400+ mile detour through Ellensburg, Yakima, Richland WA then down through the Columbia Gorge. During this time, our ARES folks and hams in general, showed the populace our ability to communicate with "old fashioned" technology and just plain perseverance. The new WWA Section Manager, Jim Pace, K7CEX, lives in Centralia so he really got his baptisim by fire (or should it be flood water?). Jim is OK and lives far enough above the river that he has no flooding but has to commute by boat! All in all, it has been a rough week out here. I hope this is our winter excitement. We need a break to clean up and get things back to normal...what ever that is. 73 Jim Fenstermaker K9JF