Western Washington was hit very hard by a terrible windstorm on the evening of Thursday,
December 14. Many trees fell down, causing all sorts of damage: broken power lines, crushed
cars, and damaged structures. The bigleaf maple in our back yard---a valued companion for 26
years---fell, hitting our house. Damage done: fifteen feet of roof eave destroyed; roof
buckled at point of impact; a 1-inch-thick branch pierced the roof; one rain gutter mashed.
It could have been much worse: three branches came within inches of two large windows.

We lost electrical power for 24 hours and we consider ourselves lucky: as of
late December 16 there were still more than 200,000 people in the Seattle area
who were without electric power.