Below are time-lapse movies of the south end of the Stevens Place triangle park, squeezed down to about a minute per hour, taken during the hour between 12:00pm and 1:00pm each day from December 13th through December 28th.
It’s interesting to watch the evolution of the snow. It starts so innocently. (Click the “More” link for following two weeks of video.)
The snow is melting, but it’s not gone yet, and things could still get worse before it’s gone. While we’re still in this mess, the folks at the Rainier Valley Post are helping organize a network of Southeast Seattle neighbors with reliable snow-friendly vehicles to help people with critical travel needs. They have volunteers in several areas, but still need people with chains or 4WD in Brighton/Othello, Rainier Beach, and Beacon Hill. We hope they won’t be needed for long, but wet snow is very slick, so lots of people are still stuck at home. If you can help, please do.
We’re starting to notice a theme in the Beacon Hill Blog photo pool:
Yesterday we were keeping warm and enjoying the snow. I was working on pulling together some things to post on the blog, and getting ready to go out and take some photographs and see what people were up to in the snow.
Then we got a phone call from our friend Kristen, telling us she was worried about her cat. I went to Kristen’s and saw that her 7 month old kitten Julius was indeed very ill, and needed to visit a vet immediately.
But there were 11 inches of snow outside, and none of us had chains, snow tires, four wheel drive, or anything else that would be helpful for driving to a vet. Additionally, there are no emergency vets in Southeast Seattle. We would have to go to West Seattle, Wallingford, Bellevue, or Lake City. I guess you can’t call 911 and get an ambulance for a cat, can you?
So we turned to the Internet. We posted on Twitter: “Trying to find emergency vet transportation for someone, to Wallingford from Beacon Hill. Sick kitten who needs a vet, and we have no chains”. We also posted an appeal on the Beacon Hill mailing list.
And soon someone did reply. I don’t know if he would want us to mention his name for this, so I won’t, but a kind Beacon Hill neighbor drove Kristen and Jason up to the emergency vet, and waited there with them until they were able to see the vet and then come home.
It is nice to know, that despite some of the neighborhood problems, that people are still neighborly and help each other out. Thank you to the neighbor who helped save Kristen’s cat.
(The kitten turned out to have an intestinal blockage. He had surgery last night and apparently the blockage was caused by eating part of a cat toy — one of those small fur-covered little mice. The surgery went well and Julius is resting now.)
Please let us know what it’s like in your part of the Hill — traffic getting around OK? Particular places to avoid? Storm damage?
A little while ago I saw some folks skiing up Beacon Avenue. There’s always that method of getting around.
We’re not sure how much snow we’ve got this time — I just measured 7″, but I’m not sure how clear the spot I measured was before this storm, or if blowing snow has affected it. I would say we probably got at least 4″, though. That may be a conservative estimate.
We hope you are all keeping warm and being safe tonight!
More snow pictures that people have uploaded to the Beacon Hill Blog photo pool on Flickr. We’d love to see your snow pictures too!
About the above video, Bridget says “This is a mostly safe place for kids to sled down. Cars aren’t really around so if you’re in the ‘hood check it out. The entry is across the street and north a little bit from the tennis courts at the Beacon Playfield.”
The National Weather Service has a Winter Storm Warning in effect for us from 4:00 pm Saturday to 4:00 pm Sunday. Here are some relevant excerpts (punctuation and lower-case added to make it more readable):
“A strong frontal system will spread precipitation inland over western Washington starting Saturday afternoon and continuing through much of Sunday. A combination of blizzard conditions, heavy snow, strong winds and ice buildups are expected…
“A major winter storm is on tap this weekend. Heavy snow is expected to develop along the coast on Saturday afternoon and then spread into the interior of western Washington early Saturday evening…
“Along the I-5 corridor north of Tacoma, including Seattle and Everett, storm-total snowfall of 4 to 8 inches is expected. In general, lighter amounts will occur near the Cascade foothills with heavier amounts further west along the shores of Puget Sound.”
The winds further east in the foothills are supposed to be extreme, and our winds, though less strong, will not be fun either. Be prepared.
Get the Flash Player to see this player.Craig Thompson reports on routes to avoid via the mailing list:
For getting off the hill, 14th or 15th to the Jose Rizal Bridge is OK. For the return trip, 12th seems OK.
Thanks Craig!