Windpocalypse Aftermath: Friday Morning, PCC

Sometime in the middle of the night, the bone chilling cold woke me up. The fire had almost gone out, I threw in another log. Most of the heat from the previous night had dissipated by the morning, turning the house chilly and making it hard to get out of bed.

Without the right batteries, the radio inside the house was useless. So, I went to the car to catch the news. The scene seemed pretty grim. Practically the whole of the Eastside had lost power. One caller reported: around 4am, he looked over the Lake Washinton from his house near the UW campus -- whole of the eastside, as far as he could see, was pitch dark.

There was not much hope that any businesses would be open. But we decided to stop by one of the nearest grocery store anyway: the PCC store. They were open but barely, and were planning on shutting down very soon. Their generator was not expected to arrive anytime soon (from Tacoma, I think.) Interestingly, you could use a credit card -- their cash registers were still working on the batteries, which ran out soon after, of course. On that first morning after the disaster, PCC decided to offer free drip coffee to all who came, which they could make using their gas stoves. How nice of them!

At the coffee station, we encountered an interesting experience. The queue was not too long, about 10 folks. PCC staff was repeatedly announcing that more coffee was on the way. Still, many of those in line were already showing impatience, trying to cut into the line, almost elbowing others out at the coffee station.