Field Gulls
Torrential rainfall and strong winds on Wednesday left over 600,000 residents without power.
A massive and deadly storm that tore through the Pacific Northwest and Northern California on Tuesday, with many homes and businesses expected to be without power for several days.
At least two Washington residents were killed and more than 600,000 residents throughout were left without power following a ‘bomb cyclone,’ which brought heavy lowland rainfall, blizzard-like conditions in the Cascades, and strong inland winds gusting as fast at 80 MPH.
It’s the most widespread power outage experienced in the Puget Sound region since the 2006 Hanukkah Eve windstorm, which notably occurred the same night as the Seattle Seahawks’ nationally televised home game against the San Francisco 49ers.
The Seahawks’ preparations for this Sunday’s pivotal home matchup with the NFC West-leading Arizona Cardinals were affected. The Virginia Mason Athletic Center (VMAC) in Renton was without power for Wednesday’s practice, forcing the facility to run on limited backup power.
ESPN’s Brady Henderson, longtime Seahawks beat reporter, described the scene at team headquarters.
The Virginia Mason Athletic Center was using limited backup power Wednesday after a “bomb cyclone” caused a mass outage that affected hundreds of thousands of people in the western part of the state.
The Seahawks adjusted their Wednesday schedule and held positional meetings in the same room. Several players used the flash lights on their cell phones to supplement the dim lighting in the locker room while it was open to reporters.
At Wednesday’s media session, Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald opened with a message of support for those affected by this catastrophic weather event.
“Good to see everybody,” Macdonald said. “Good to be in the building. I know there’s a lot going on in our city right now with the power going out, the storm and everything. Our thoughts and prayers are with everybody. Everybody hopefully stays healthy and we appreciate everybody on the scene helping everybody out. But, good to see everybody in person.”
DK Metcalf, the only other Seahawk coach or player with a media session, also began his statement by saying, “Weather-wise, hope everybody’s fine and everybody gets their lights back on very fast and swiftly.”
As far as how the Seahawks’ schedule was impacted, Macdonald added, “We pushed some things back. There are some things we don’t have in the building, but we’re just fine.” Seattle practiced outdoors on Wednesday afternoon.
Another storm is slated to hit Washington later this week, albeit not nearly as strong as Tuesday’s, but the potential for more damage and more power outages is still there.
Field Gulls also extends its best wishes to everyone impacted by this historic, wide-ranging storm.
