West Seattle, Washington
12 Thursday
… including tomorrow’s West Seattle Farmers’ Market fresh sheet and 2 deals at upscale West Seattle restaurants; posting it all after a jump since we sense people are still catching up on today’s news, post-game, and don’t want to push all that too far down the main page:Read More
First: While out checking on the Seacrest diver rescue (see report below this one) and West Seattle bridge accident (second report below this one), we also drove along Alki and happened onto this amazing scene: Dozens of people crossing over to the beach at Pepperdock (first photo) around 2 pm, carrying red balloons, which after what looked like a moment of reflection (second photo), they released (third photo). Since we were in our car, we couldn’t ask who or what it was for – please post a comment if you know. 10:20 PM UPDATE: Finally found confirmation; a memorial gathering for a young woman who died.
Second: West Seattle’s Rainbow Girls braved the blusteriness at midday to collect Christmas trees outside the Masonic Hall in The Junction for the treecycling fundraiser we mentioned here on WSB. If you missed it, our other treecycling info is here.
ORIGINAL 1:42 PM REPORT: The fire department’s sending out a big response in that direction – a diver apparently got into trouble – report of CPR under way now – diver’s companions all out of the water and accounted for. 2:35 PM UPDATE: Scene was cleared by the time we got to Seacrest. Appears the diver was rushed to the hospital. 2:40 PM UPDATE: Information gathered at the scene by WSB contributor Christopher Boffoli, who took the photo above (more to come):
The injured man was recently engaged. He and his fiancee are avid divers. In fact, I learned that when he recently proposed to his girlfriend they were on a dive together. He put a ring in a shell and sank it in advance of the dive. When they found it he opened the shell and had an underwater sign to ask if she’d marry him. Today there were a handful of divers out there. This man was off diving on his own in 25 feet of water. The fiancee was not diving with him today but was on the scene and was visibly shaken. Another diver told me that when the diver did not come up his friends alerted the other divers who went over to where he was diving and executed a search.
2:55 PM UPDATE: According to the fire department’s media-hotline update, the diver is in his 40s and was indeed diving solo, and as Christopher learned, found unconscious underwater. The fire department did not have an update on his condition – we will check on that again later. More of Christopher’s photos:
2:35 PM UPDATE: Everything’s open again now.
ORIGINAL REPORT: Breaking news from WSB contributor Christopher Boffoli: A crash has closed the bridge heading toward downtown, around Fauntleroy. 911 website shows 2 fire/medic units on the scene. Sounds like they are diverting cars from Fauntleroy to Avalon. Right now you can see that on this city traffic cam showing the blocked-off Fauntleroy entrance to the bridge; here’s the latest image … 3 PM NOTE, live traffic cams now removed from this post because they’re no longer relevant BUT here’s an earlier photo of the 35th roadblock, thanks to Eric for sending it:
For the first time in a while, a “lost pet” e-mail landed in the WSB inbox this morning, reminding us we had been meaning to add a West Seattle Pets section. As with everything else, this page is starting small, with room to grow (room for pet fun and pet info as well as lost/found). Please go there to see “Nico” the lost kitty in case he turns up at your house. 11 PM UPDATE: “Nico” is back home safe; we’re continuing to add features to the pet page, including a link to the WSB Pet Photos group on Flickr that we just set up in case you want to upload pet pix for potential showcasing (we started with a pic of our 2 cats).
From the WSB Events page and Weekend Lineup list: It’s not happening in West Seattle, but it features a well-known West Seattleite: Georgie Bright Kunkel (photo left) speaks at Elliott Bay Books at 2 pm today about the book she and husband Norman Kunkel co-authored to tell the story of his experiences during World War II and beyond, WWII Liberator’s Life: AFS Ambulance Driver Chooses Peace. (Among so many other writings, Georgie contributed her Christmas story “The Red Plush Coat” to WSB last month.)
First pic, Cub Scout Pack 793 in West Seattle; second pic, 598th Maintenance Company in Iraq. During what Pack 793 advisers describe as “their most successful popcorn-selling season ever” — more than $12,000 sold, beating last year’s record $9,000-plus — they collected community donations so they could send popcorn to the soldiers for Christmas — and that effort resulted in $710 worth of caramel corn, chocolate caramel crunch, and microwave popcorn going overseas. Why the 598th, you ask? One of its soldiers is uncle to one of the Scouts. (Read more on the Pack 793 website.)
Toward our goal of continuously improving and expanding WSB, we’ve just added more new stuff and wanted to officially let you know:
“OTHER BLOGS IN WEST SEATTLE” HEADLINES: We’ve wanted for some time to make this page more than a static list of links, and finally found a service that will pull a frequently updated list of those sites’ newest entries (via RSS). Check the page out and see what you think. Per blog tradition, of course, the newest stuff is on top. Under the list of the latest entries, you’ll find the original list of static links for the 100-plus blogs that we have found West Seattleites producing so far (please let us know if we’re missing someone!).
WEST SEATTLE CRIME WATCH PAGE: Now that we are visiting the Southwest Precinct at least three times a week to scour police reports for cases you should know about, we have created the West Seattle Crime Watch page so you can easily find the latest information and other resources to help you keep your home and family safe. This page and its contents will be an ever-evolving work in progress but we’ve got enough of the basics on it now to launch it today (you can find it any time from the Crime Watch tab at the top of each WSB page).
“2008 ELECTIONS” FORUM: Today marks the start of the third week for the new WSB Forums, and so far it looks like they’re working for their initial purposes — to give you a place to post a Reader Recommendation Request (forum here) as soon as you have one, rather than waiting for us to find a home for it on the main WSB page, and to give you a place to launch an Open Discussion (forum here) about whatever’s on your mind, whenever you feel like it. We’ve also just added a 2008 Elections section (forum here) in case you want to talk politics — presidential, city, county, state, etc. — when there’s no related current news item on the main WSB page. One forum usage reminder: Anyone can read the posts, but to reply or start a topic, you have to register, and sign in. For as long as you remain signed in, the same user name you choose will also show as your user name for any comment you post elsewhere on WSB. If you don’t want that name to show on a comment, log out before you leave the forum area, or click the “log out” link you’ll see toward the bottom of the right sidebar on any page.
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