Mukilteo Musings

Inauguration Day

A storm to remember!! The year was 1993 and President Clinton was being sworn in. After eight years of Reagan and four years of Bush the elder, I was excited to be an American that day and listen to our new President's speech. I was so hopeful about a new direction and my Mom told me she felt the same that day as when Kennedy was elected. Clinton held that same sort of charisma for many of us, especially in Seattle. Of course, this was years before Monica and everything.

Kaley was home sick from pre-school with a fever. Lucas was seven and Kaley was four. It was windy and rainy so I got Lucas off to school and settled in with my coffee to watch the festivities on TV. Dave was gone somewhere; I don't remember now but I don't think it was DC. The wind really started to pick up and became violent. I watched Clinton get sworn in and was waiting for his speech. Literally, after one sentence at 9 A.M. my time, bam.....the power went out. I screamed at the TV.....NO, no, no. How can this be?? I have waited 12, yes, 12 YEARS for this speech. But the lights did not come back on. In fact, we were without electricity for the entire day and into the next. I learned later that Kaley's pre-school class had taken a field trip to a local hospital where they were frighteningly stuck for hours.

The day was cold and I was concerned about not having heat with a sick child. We had a fire place but we didn't have any wood. Luckily, my good friend and neighbor had plenty of wood so I managed to get to her house and loaded up on fire wood. I then proceeded to the grocery store to get some tylenol for Kaley's fever and that is when I realized we were practically having a hurricane. Trees and branches were down everywhere. Power lines had toppled and nobody had electricity. At this point, I still felt like the power outage was local. After Lucas got home from school, we waited for the power to return and I had no radio or information on how widespread the damage was. Dinner time rolled around and with no electricity, our electric stove did not work nor did our microwave. Dave was the expert with the BBQ grill and he was gone.

So I ventured out with the children strapped tightly in the car to find a restaurant. Everything nearby was closed. I drove onto I-5 to head south to Lynnwood and Edmonds in hopes of finding anything. This is one of the scariest times of my life and I realized this storm was huge. Listening to Clinton's speech somehow no longer seemed important. The freeway had no lights and it was pitch black; power lines, trees, poles, branches and debris were flying everywhere. I learned later we had had winds of 90 mph swooshing through the entire Puget Sound area so it was truly like a hurricane. Nobody was around and it felt like the aftermath of a nuclear war. I had made a huge mistake driving around with my children. Carefully, I trekked back to our house scared to death of being hit by a gigantic tree, stoked up the fire and made tuna fish sandwiches.

For as long as I live, I will never forget the Inauguration Day Storm. It was one of those days when everyone who lived in Seattle remembers where they were and what they were doing on Inauguration Day 1993.

A link and a quote about the storm now a part of Seattle history, lore, and the subject of great stories at parties:
http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=2886

"Inaugural Day storm ravages Puget Sound on January 20, 1993.

On January 20, 1993, an Inaugural Day storm with winds topping 94 mph ravages Puget Sound. Six people die [mostly hit by falling trees] and hundreds of thousands lose electric power for days. Only the Columbus Day storm of 1962 exceeds the violence of this event."