Remembering the big Columbus Day Storm

Saturday, October 12 is the 51st anniversary of the 1962 Columbus Day Storm, the strongest non-tropical wind storm ever to hit the lower 48 in American history. It is the granddaddy of all windstorms that all other windstorms are compared to.

Wind speeds exceeded 150 mph along the Oregon and Washington coasts and exceeded 100 mph in the western interior valleys from Eugene to Bellingham. Since many wind instruments were either destroyed or knocked offline during a power outage, the actual highest wind speeds were not known.

The storm killed 46 people from northern California to Washington and injured hundreds of others. It blew down or destroyed thousands of buildings and knocked out power to millions of people from San Francisco to southern British Columbia. The wind storm also blew down 15 billion board feet of timber from the coast to as far east as western Montana, enough timber to build a million homes.

Could another storm like this one occur again? The answer is yes. And now many more people live in the region than back in 1962. What would happen if that storm occurred again today?

Wind storms occur each year in our region and the stronger storms every 10 years. The Hannakah Eve Wind Storm of December 2006 knocked out power for about 1.5 million people in western Washington.

So it is prudent to prepare now for wind storms or any other hazardous events or weather that can occur, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions. Here are a few key resources to help you get ready at home, at work, school, or in your vehicle.

www.ready.gov
takewinterbystorm.org