Carbon Monoxide Blamed For 2 Storm Deaths

At Least 100 In Northwest Sickened By Fumes; Storm's Death Toll At 10

(CBS/AP)  The death toll from the Northwest's worst windstorm in more than a decade climbed to 10 Monday, while at least 100 people developed symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning blamed on the use of portable generators and grills for light and heating.

Nearly 250,000 homes and businesses remained without power in hard-hit western Washington, where officials said some residents used generators and charcoal grills for light and heat during the blackout. Two of the dead were among those taken ill with the poisoning symptoms. In all, eight people in Washington state have died in the storm.

"We're dealing with a carbon-monoxide epidemic in Western Washington," said Dr. Neil B. Hampson of Virginia Mason Medical Center.

Two other deaths in Oregon were blamed on the storm that struck last Thursday.

Wind gusted to 113 mph during the storm near Mount Rainier and to a record 69 mph at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. More than 1.5 million homes and businesses across the Northwest lost electricity at some point in the storm.

About 240,000 customers were still without power in western Washington, utilities reported, as temperatures were in the low to mid 20s over most of the affected area early Monday.

On Sunday, a man and his dog were electrocuted when they stepped on a fallen power line while out for a walk in Gig Harbor, Pierce County sheriff's Detective Ed Troyer said. Troyer said residents had been clearing debris near the power line for days, unaware that it was live.

Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire declared a statewide disaster and the state National Guard was mobilized to help get fuel and supplies to hard-hit areas.

Some retailers were running out of fire logs and batteries, fireplace and stove wood was also in short supply and there were still long lines at some gasoline stations as some motorists complained of sudden price increases at the pump.

Many tried to manage at home, others moved in with friends or relatives and some went to shelters opened by the Red Cross.

Katy Freiberg of Bellevue, Wash., told The Seattle Times she and her children, ages 9, 8 and 3, went to an emergency shelter at North Bellevue Community Center to get showers, clean clothes and a warm meal Sunday after three days of relying on an outdoor barbecue grill for cooking and warmth.

"We were putting wood in the grill to cook and stay warm. We were basically living outside," Freiberg said. "We woke up this morning and it was so very cold, I said, 'Kids, we just can't do this anymore. We need to get warm.'"

Irene Endow of Bellevue, who lost power Friday, also decided it was time to seek shelter. "After two really cold nights, we're going to go to a friend's house that has power and sleep there tonight," she said.

Utility crews, many exhausted from overtime work following previous snow, wind and rain storms in the region this fall, worked through the night to clear trees from power lines and repair damage to main "feeder" lines between substations and neighborhoods.

Puget Sound Energy officials said days of work remained to restore power in areas ranging from Mercer Island, a wealthy suburb just east of Seattle, to more far-flung suburban and rural areas.

With another 80 crews set to arrive from as far away as southern California and Kansas, the utility expected to have more than 2,000 repair personnel on the job Monday, she said.

As of early Monday nearly 18,000 Seattle City Light customers were in the dark, as well as 8,700 in the Snohomish County Public Utility District, 8,000 served by Peninsula Light Co. of Gig Harbor, 3,000 in Tacoma and more than 1,000 in the Grays Harbor County PUD on the coast.

At the other end of the state, about 3,300 were still without power Sunday after service was restored for much of Spokane and nearby Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, as Avista Corp. and other utility crews moved into rural areas north of the two population centers.

"Those areas tend to be more wooded, so it's going to take longer for us to get to the power lines," Avista spokeswoman Laurine Jue said.

By several measures the devastation has exceeded that of the storm on Jan. 20, 1993, which left five people dead, at least 79 homes destroyed and about $130 million in damage.

Damages from the current storm have yet to be assessed, but the death toll this time is higher the impact on the power grid appears to be more severe. Seattle City Light is reconnecting 175,000 buildings, compared with 110,000 in the Inauguration Day storm, and Puget Sound Energy reported more damage to major transmission lines.

In some areas thieves began taking advantage of cover of darkness. Two people were cornered by a police dog and arrested outside Tacoma in Pierce County after a witness reported a burglary and gave chase to a Chevrolet blazer that crashed into a tree, sheriff's Detective Ed Troyer said.

Deputies also arrested two men for investigation in the stripping of copper from downed power lines, Troyer said.

Seattle police said they did not have any indication of an increase in break-ins but recommended that anyone staying in a darkened home take precautions, locking doors and bracing windows shut.

Another aftermath was an increase in smog resulting from heavier use of wood fires for heating and an inversion that trapped stagnant, cold air close to the ground. Unhealthy levels of air pollution were reported in Lake Forest Park, the South Park area of Seattle, Kent and south Tacoma.

"It'll remain dry and cold along the West Coast, including the Northwest, for at least the next 2 days as the next Pacific storm shouldn't reach the Northwest coastline until Wednesday night at the earliest, says CBS News meteorologist George Cullen.

[winded1]

Gosh this really has been a hard hard time. It's important to remember that every disaster is different and it is literally inevitable that the initial hours are going to be chaotic.

Such a huge area was affected--it takes time to work out where the most people are affected and where the best shelters are--even to work out which potential shelters have power and which are dark. Not to mention the challenge of contacting volunteers to work at the shelters--the people who respond to the disaster were also affected by the disaster with phones down and roofs ruined.

We all need to learn that every disaster has a period that just feels too long before help starts kicking in%u2014that is inevitable, each disaster is completely different. This is why it is really absolutely essential that each person, each family and each neighborhood take steps to be self-sufficient for AT LEAST 3 days.

So, let's all learn the lesson and reach out to our neighbors, work together, let%u2019s make sure that next time we%u2019ll be stocked up on the things what we needed this time.

Just think how lucky we were--in this event, most of our houses are still there and just waiting for power to be as warm and reassuring as before--disasters happen, they are part of life, not all disaster leave so many houses intact.

[jt92202]

Continued

750,000 people out of power who are customers of Puget Sound Power and still 200,000 today! We were lucky that we were close to Snohomish County where the power was on in many more places but the traffic to get there was very heavy and many people were getting very cranky!! They had Shelters open Friday Eve!! You never know when this will happen to you so get ready now so you won't be without later!! Batterys where gone out of the stores, wood was getting pretty hard to find by Saturday and as I said gas was almost gone in most area's. Prepare, Prepare, Prepare!!! Disasters happen when you least expect them!!

[jt92202]

3 days without power and we were lucky to get it back unlike others that are still out. I have to say I am very disappointed in some of the gas station owners in the area! Raising the price of gas as soon as their power came on from 2.65 to upwardly of 6.00 a gallon was uncalled for (most raised the prices by .20 to .40 but others went to 6.00! Gas stations that got power ran out of gas within 6 hours of getting that power and had miles of cars waiting in line to get the gas they had. I heard of people driving 80 miles to get gas. King county did not have shelters up and going Friday night and were telling people to call Homeless Shelters to find room (which were full with the homeless people comming in from the cold) the storm hit Thursday night. Why weren't shelters set up during the day Friday? Not until late Friday night early Saturday morning did they have any shelters open for people to go to. Where we live in Kirkland WA there was no power from 10 miles north of us to 35 miles south of us and 50+ miles to the east of us.

[olgreyghost]

If one is going to use a grill to stay warm, keep the grill outside and heat up rocks, bricks, and pots of water OUTSIDE and then bring the heated items, not the grill, indoors to warm the place up. Set up camping tents inside the homes to reduce the area that needs to kept warm to just the space of the tent. Human body temperature will be helpful in this regard.

It seems the more civilized we become, the less capable we are to survive the curveballs nature throws at us. The Earth is one giant self-correcting system and the dominant species might just be on the way out...