Winter Storm

I’m still feeling the effects of the weather in Washington State. I’ve been parked since Friday evening.

Monday morning I reported to Dispatch that there was still an “ice storm warning” along I-90/I-82 corridor until 04:00 PST 12/27 in my route to pickup a load in Wenatchee, WA (was supposed to pickup last Friday night when i shutdown due to chains on Snoqualmie Pass).

So, Monday morning Sales pulls the load assignment from me to find a closer truck to run it.

Tuesday morning the routes are open as I told Dispatch yesterday. Now I’m sitting waiting for a new load assignment.

3.5 days so far. I’ve inquired with my FM about some layover pay to make up some of my loss. He is back from his holiday this morning.

There was freezing rain reported Monday afternoon when I would have been driving if I had gone for it yesterday. If it was rain or snow I would have gone, but I don’t want to risk ice at this point.

Every recent morning as I listen to the weather reports on the half hour I'm thinking if Dennis is still stuck there. "This soon shall pass"....hopefully soon! I got stranded at that TA once for 30 hours when Snoqualmie was shut down.

Guess I was lucky, to some extent. My trainer's truck developed a coolant leak and that put the kabosh on driving that week. And last week he was on vacation so no driving for me again. But with the weather being as it was, maybe kept me from getting in a nasty situation. There was a road closure on the PA turnpike and a 50 vehicle pile up on the OH turnpike. We run quite a bit on those so maybe being home was a good thing.

Now home for a third week bcuz my trainer is still off for the holidays, which is really good for him, and for me, too.

Snoqualmie Pass was closed from midday Saturday to Sunday 09:00. Then reopened with chains. After a couple hours the chains restriction was removed. However, there was still winter weather advisory and ice storm warnings until this morning.

I just wasn’t going to take the risk with ice! Too many photos of jackknifed trucks that probably hit ice going too fast!

Today is a dang gale warning and heavy rain where I’m sitting. Landslide warnings in mountains due to heavy rain saturation.

After running around the northeast and Midwest, I got a load going to Newnan, GA.

I’m not as lucky as Davy. He got routed to Cancun.

I’m rolling again in route to Twin Falls, ID to pick up a load to Wilmington, IL. Gone from snow and ice to very strong gusty winds with empty trailer.

If that's still there on my next trip out there, I'm stopping to check out the cargo and the damage close up.

Have you had a trip back that way, and if so, was the truck still there?

If that's still there on my next trip out there, I'm stopping to check out the cargo and the damage close up.

Have you had a trip back that way, and if so, was the truck still there?

No PackRat didn't go back that way. He's up in Minnesota with his truck in the shop. I came back from Oakland that way a few days after I posted and that truck was gone.

Laura

Harvey, I read that 90% of California is under a flood watch. What is your current situation?

Harvey, I read that 90% of California is under a flood watch. What is your current situation?

We are okay so far but it has been pretty ugly. Had strong winds Saturday night with widespread power outages again, we were on generator for 18 hours again. The utility seems to be restoring power a bit faster than the week prior even though winds were stronger (gusts of 64 MPH in Sacramento). River levels are high but our levees are in good shape, I drove around the island yesterday to see if there had been any significant wind damage. Back around 1996 the winds were blowing water across the levee and it wasn't that bad this time because river levels were lower as our reservoirs are able to handle this runoff because of several years of drought (but they are getting much closer to normal levels now). One of the boards reclamation boards I sit on declared an emergency on Friday to make some funding available for some big costs we will have to pump water out. Many of the lower elevation fields on other farms are under water. We had heavy rain yesterday afternoon and this morning (just over 2") and there has been heavy snow up in the mountains and I-80 is closed as of right now with no estimated time of opening. Michael was told to come back from Utah via Las Vegas route. Three more storms on the way, this is some crazy wet drought (they haven't announced the drought is over yet, that means we still need to conserve water).

Sorry, my mistake, the rest areas are closed, I-80 is open with chain controls. Looks like a big crowd came to the show.