Winds of Palmer
Contributed by Marilyn Bennett
It is amazing how the winds seem to zoom into Palmer every couple of years with a ferocity that I have never experienced anywhere else. During Christmas break of 2021/22 we endured a horrific windstorm that made the snow pile up in huge drifts. A 6' drift at our front door and another 6' on our patio. We needed help to get out of our house that year. We also lost part of our wooden fence.
Therefore, when the horrific winds started up this year, I was very thankful that there was no snow. Unfortunately, the storm this year seemed to be even more ferocious. The electricity went out for about eight hours, which was not too bad, but our furnace kept turning off. We spent several sleepless nights keeping an eye on the furnace as we had to constantly reset the boiler control after each large gust of wind.
When we woke-up that first morning we saw that we had several fences down and the fabric on the greenhouse was ripping and flapping in the wind. Then as we were watching through the window, a huge gust came through the back yard and went in through the sliding doors of our metal shed. The wind lifted the shed right up off its foundation and moved it over to another spot in the yard. Then as we watched, horrified, the shed was lifted again and bounded through the back fence into the woods. It was pretty scary.
The shed held the rakes, spades and our lawnmower. There was also two large shelves full of boxes and other sundry items put away for the winter. Both shelves were scattered along with the treasurers they held all around our yard. The lawnmower and many other items were sitting there on the floor of the now nonexistent shed wondering what was going to happen next. The greenhouse also had disgorged its collection of large and small pots all around the neighborhood. As to the fencing, every single fence had either blown over or was so weakened that the follow-up windstorm pretty much took care of taking them down.
When we had a break, I went out with a trash bag and picked up the small and broken items. We hired two great young guys to take the large trash, the remains of the metal shed and the fence that had fallen down. We realized that very little of the fence was recoverable and also could see that we might want to do something different with our fences. We are looking into putting up a wire fence next summer or at least something that may stay up during another windstorm. Just as we were considering what to do about our fence we were hit with a second storm. That time it took our trash can and hurled it into my Subaru. It cracked the front windshield and shattered the driver’s side door window into a million tiny pieces. My husband went out and bought a large piece of plexiglass, cut it to size and taped it in place as a temporary window. The windshield was replaced quickly but the door window needed a couple of weeks, as it had to be shipped from the lower 48. The car is now back in working order and we are busy getting estimates to fix our yard. It will certainly be a busy summer, rebuilding our shed, greenhouse and all the fencing.
It was interesting however, that my glass flowers stayed up through it all. So, through this winter I can still look out the window and see my cheerful glass flowers lending color to our snowy yard. The other thing I thought was unusual, was that our flag stayed on the garage door the whole time. In 2022 it was the first thing to go. Every time I went out to the front of the house I would come back in and sing "that our flag was still there."
So, the glass flowers stand proud, and our flag is still draped over our garage door. What more can anyone ask for?
Such is Life in Palmer, Alaska.