100-mph winds

December 1, 2011 will be remembered as the day the Blue Spruce Trees tipped over. As I walked or drove through Bountiful and Centerville during the aftermath of the fierce winds, fortunately, I noted few trees that brought down electrical power lines. That wasn't true with my side-fence neighbor. The largest two of her blue spruce trees that once stood on the east back-side of her yard, now lay with their tops on her patio canopy. As the largest tree fell, the power line that stretched from the power pole to the electrical power meter box attached to the duplex on the lot south of her her house acted as a catch-net for the two trees. After one of the trees went down, I was watching and I actually saw the biggest tree slowly tip over.

Early on in the morning, I got on my Ham radio, frequency 147.440, which is the Kaysville/Layton Storehouse network. I was surprised to find that no one responded to my call on this frequency. Then I got on the District (Stake) frequency 147.500 and had a similar experience, no one responded to my calls. Next, I got on my cell phone and called a past District Coordinator. He was just getting out of bed and hadn't yet thought of getting on the radio. Then I phoned a few of our neighborhood coordinators. The first one I called, his wife said he left for school at 6 a.m. The next, I left a voice mail message and heard back from him an two or three hours later.

As I continued to monitor the District frequency and the Area channel (8) I heard a familiar voice, Leon calling any station. He was not able to receive my response call so I called on my cell phone. We were able to communicate on channel 8 after he made an adjustment on his radio.

Throughout the day, it was comforting to be able to communicate with Leon and Mark. The climax of communication success happened later in the evening when I communicated with Leon on Penman, Lyle on 2200 S, and Mark at Quail Lane.

As the day ended and the sun went down and the electrical power had not yet been restored to our area, my thoughts went to those who may be adversely affected by the lack of heat in their homes. I was happy to hear that Leon had checked on all the elderly on his street and I hoped the same happened in each neighborhood in our area. Sometime during the night, electrical power was restored and I awoke to a toasty warm home.

All in all, the electrical power was out in our neighborhood for less than 24-hours, and the experience was a good exercise to allow us to test our emergency communication, check on the physical well being of our neighbors, help where needed, and to think about how well we are prepared to fare well during disasters.

Hopefully, the day will not only be remembered as the day the Blue Spruce's tipped over, but as a day of mercy, when we were spared a significant disaster and provided an opportunity to prepare for future emergencies.