PENINSULA DAILY NEWS Port Angeles-Sequim-West End
50 cents
January 20-21, 2012
YOUR FRIDAY/SATURDAY WEEKEND PLANNER OUTLOOK:
UPLIFTING:
LET IT FLOW:
THE RIDGE:
Breezy with periods of rain
Experience winter at home
Queen of Zydeco comes to town
A reggae royal plays at college
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PENINSULA SPOTLIGHT
PENINSULA SPOTLIGHT
Weathering the Storm ELEVATOR
GETS STUCK, BABY KEEPS MOVING
More snow — and freezing rain — blanket the Peninsula BY TOM CALLIS
ALSO . . .
PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
PORT ANGELES — The first blast of snowy weather of the year on the North Olympic Peninsula refused to go quietly. From Port Townsend to at least Joyce, fresh snow showers blanketed sidewalks and driveways recently cleared of the white stuff Thursday, which was predicted to be cold but calm.
State of emergenchy Gov. Chris Gregoire declared a statewide state of emergency after Seattle and many areas in the southwestern part of the state
■Checking to see what’s open /A4 ■State of emergency for the state/A10
suffered ice storms. No power outages and no major vehicle wrecks were reported in Clallam County as of 1 p.m. Thursday. Every school on the North Olympic Peninsula, except for Crescent School District in Joyce, which had a two-hour delay, was closed. “The buses were able to get in and out, the highway was safe
and passable, so we’re ready,� Crescent Superintendent Tom Anderson said. Anderson estimated that Joyce received 2 inches of new snow as of Thursday afternoon, and it was unclear whether the district’s school would be open again today.
Snow plows on roads Clallam County Engineer Ross Tyler said all snowplows were back on the roads Thursday as planned, though drivers had more work to do than anticipated. “We didn’t expect the snow we’re getting right now,� he said. TURN
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THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Blake Thacker shares a calm moment with parents Luke and Katie Thacker at St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma, where he was born in an elevator earlier in the day.
Peninsula grandma tells of an ‘insane morning’ in Tacoma The phone didn’t ring. Time crawled. At about 5:35 a.m., Curry TACOMA — All that forcalled St. Joseph and, to her mer Port Angeles residents great relief, learned that Katie Luke and Katie Thacker had been admitted. wanted to do was go upstairs “Great. She’s there. There’s and have their baby. nothing to worry about,� was They didn’t make it that far. her thought. Well before dawn WednesAt 7:45 a.m., Luke called day, Katie went into labor, so with the news of Blake she and her husband started Michael Thacker, born about driving the icy highway from two hours earlier — and a their Spanaway home to St. summary that went like this: Joseph Medical Center in “Katie and I have had the Tacoma. most insane morning of our Katie also had her mom, lives.� Jessica Burns, call Luke’s mom, Olympic Medical Center Trapped Assistant Administrator Rhonda Curry. When Luke, Katie and her It was 5:03 a.m., and Curry mother and sister, a midwife was in Port Angeles, where her and two nurses boarded an elehospital was in storm-response vator bound for the 14th-floor mode during this week’s blizbirthing center, its doors zard. refused to close. She’d had every intention of So Katie, the midwife and driving to Tacoma for this nurses slipped into another birth, but with the weather, elevator, which then got stuck she could only stay put, phone between the 12th and 14th in hand. floors. Knowing how bad road conLike many hotels and hosditions were — and working in pitals, St. Joseph has no floor a hospital — Curry could marked 13, “so, how ironic,� imagine something terrible Curry said. happening on that drive to TURN TO ELEVATOR/A4 Tacoma.
BY DIANE URBANI
DE LA
PAZ
PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
KEITH THORPE/PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
Christine Loewe of Port Angeles takes advantage of the week’s cold temperatures to skate on a large frozen puddle on a vacant lot next to the Valley Creek Estuary in Port Angeles on Thursday.
Trash can lids provide simple pleasure in storm BY ARWYN RICE TOM CALLIS
AND
PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
In the event of a snowstorm, a shortage of proper snow supplies can result in a run on trash can lids. Snow survival supplies — such as chips, dip, sleds and toboggans — quickly sold out at Forks Outfitters this week, store director Dave Gedlund said. “We sold a lot of snow toys,� Gedlund said. When the sleds sold out, enterprising residents made inroads on the store’s supply of trash can lids, he said. The store was resupplied late Tuesday, Gedlund said.
Forks wasn’t the only place where people were taking advantage of the longer-than-anticipated storm. Residents across Clallam County appeared to be taking advantage of the powder, making a long weekend even longer by taking snow days and turning virtually any hill into their own downhill course. Here are some of their stories:
Daman Harrell, PA Harrell’s family members were among the 50 people who gathered Wednesday afternoon to sled on a hill just north of the Olympic National Park Visitor Center in Port Angeles.
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A perennial puddle or shallow pond on the Port Angeles waterfront became an impromptu iceskating rink for a mother and her 2-year-old son Thursday morning. Michigan native Christine Loewe, 35, said she had been waiting for 10 years, since accidentally discovering the puddle in a frozen state during a cold snap a decade ago. TURN
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“The kids are loving it,� said Harrell, who was joined by his wife, two children and two dogs. “We don’t get to use them [the sleds] very often.�
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