11-19-15 In the aftermath of a devastating storm, the Whidbey community comes together

Tuesday afternoon, we were all shocked by the torrential rains and potent winds that knocked down trees and took out power through most of the South end of Whidbey Island.  As of today, Thursday, my husband and I are still without power in our Freeland neighborhood.*

In the midst of the disorientation and confusion that an event like this creates, I was, once again, reminded how special our Whidbey community is.  Neighbors and friends with generators invited their power-less friends to come over.  Our neighbors came together with chain saws and were able to clear enough space on our road that had a tree come down, so that we weren’t trapped until Puget Sound Energy could come to our neighborhood.

In Freeland, my favorite small cafe, Timbuktu, behind the Texaco station, invited folks to come in and use his Wi-Fi and Whidbey Tel opened its conference room to folks who for people and their computers.  Other businesses with Wi-Fi were also friendly to all of us computer-dependent folks.

I’ll be glad when our power is back on, but I’m sure glad I live where I live.''

*Power came on at 4 p.m. today, about 48 hours after it went out.  Interestingly, the crew that did the work were from Canada, coming down to help us out.