(WSB Traffic cams page HERE – links/open-closed list HERE)
WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli sent that photo from the 41st/Edmunds truck nightmare that unfolded within the past hour or so. As we wrote near the end of afternoon coverage, AVOID THAT AREA – “sheet of ice.” Just a block away, at 41st/Alaska, Christopher reports, “Alaska is wet but intersections are a mess of slush and ice.” See for yourself:
If you are just checking in for the first time in a few hours, by the way, you may find some helpful commuting/shopping information in the post/comments we just closed – see it here. One shopping note from e-mail: WSB sponsor Click! Design That Fits is open till 7 tonight in the Admiral District, and tomorrow till about 3.
6:33 PM UPDATE: And there’s news from north West Seattle, from Jackie:
To add to all the other difficulties we’re undergoing, water has been shut off on SW Lander below Admiral (map) since mid-afternoon – there’s a break or some other problem opposite SW Campbell Place. The upside is that the city had to clear at least one car’s width of snow from the road so that the repair trucks could get to the problem area!
And scanner now has word that Edmunds/California eastbound (map) is blocked. Not sure if this is a new problem, or being shut down because of the aforementioned hill woes. Just avoid the area.
6:56 PM UPDATE: Heartening news from Mary at Twilight, re: the followup we published earlier today on their decision to try to turn the art theft (yesterday’s original story here) into something good: A commenter asked when Twilight will be open tomorrow, and she answered quickly, “I will be here 11-3 with jingle bells on! I may try to get here earlier, but call first 933.2444. Thanks for all the support! we filled a box with toys today! We are still collecting for the West Seattle Food Bank too.” Twilight is on SW Alaska just west of Easy Street. Meantime, for those of you awaiting UPS deliveries – a truck just showed up on California south of Thistle (map) a moment ago, so they’re still out there. And if you’d like a look at Admiral/California, RealLowVibe‘s Twitter stream included the link to this recent photo. And shortly afterward – a snowplow appears, in this pic. ** Listening to city crews on the scanner – 42nd/Oregon (map) also “ice-packed.”
7:11 PM UPDATE: From Genesee Hill, Creighton sends word (and picture) of a postal truck’s woes at 49th/Genesee (map): “Poor guy is trying his best to get up the street, after delivering a package about half way up the hill, but his chains aren’t enough. He’s just sliding around. With the help of some generous neighbors they’re about to attempt a push.”
8:08 PM UPDATE: Scott C sends this link to the latest radar animation with the alert: “It’s coming.” And from Christopher, video of the stuck-truck trouble he covered earlier on the back side of Jefferson Square:
Happy ending! (But how about those SPARKS?)
8:27 PM UPDATE: Scanner says there’s a vehicle blocking northbound traffic on Delridge at Orchard. Also, as we just wrote in comments, our request to SDOT for the official city statement on the no-salt controversy (and for some more info on the grader that appeared today) has been answered, and we just published it here.
8:59 PM UPDATE: Update from Creighton on the postal truck on Genesee Hill (see above):
Mini saga over just now: The neighbor’s efforts to push such a large truck uphill proved futile. A USPS tow truck was called in and hooked a cable to the front of the stuck postal truck to spin it 180 degrees downhill. Wondering whose packages didn’t get delivered (albeit with valiant effort!) tonight?
And Ingrid in Sunrise Heights tells the tale of the commute from hell, getting home from downtown:
I arrived at a bus stop at 2nd and Columbia at about 6pm tonight, and there was a woman there who¹d been waiting since 3:30! We watched several full buses go by - apparently, Metro wasn¹t running articulated buses tonight. Several of us ended up waiting at the bar, Contour, and rushing out to find each bus full, only to go back inside. I eventually got a ride from my partner. I had no idea it could be so hard to get home!
9:20 PM UPDATE: Sage K has more on the Delridge/Orchard (intersection by Arco/Home Depot/etc.) problem mentioned above:
“Just came home and there is a gas tanker truck stuck in the northbound lane of Delridge at Orchard. It was attempting to turn into the Shell station there. They are attempting to dig it out and have people directing traffic around it. Don’t know how long it will be there.
9:54 PM UPDATE: The county has updated its list of closures. Newspaper columnists are starting to sound the horn for marching on City Hall; there’s one thing we’re reminded of, reading the comments that follow this P-I column — We haven’t seen much of Hizzoner since things got ugly. Back on Saturday, he led a “briefing” at 5 pm, then another one at 7 pm (without saying much, as we noted toward the start of our Saturday night coverage), and since we are on the media-advisory list, we knew about those, but we haven’t seen anything since. Same thing happened during the days of powerlessness after the December 2006 windstorm — not even an “I feel your pain” type tour. If we were him, we’d have a news conference on the steps of the house that, as Gina pointed out in afternoon comments, is on a street as unplowed as many of ours, and just say, hey, we know you’re ticked off, we’re trying to do better day by day and we’ll figure out what to do better next time. Honesty helps too. /soapbox
10:12 PM UPDATE: And here is yet another example of the problem – another video clip from WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli showing the crazy road conditions in The Junction – West Seattle’s “downtown”:
Listening to the scanner for the nth hour, the drinking-game phrase can now switch from “sheet of ice” to “kids throwing snowballs at cars.” Police somewhere out there being dispatched to just such a call, again.
10:24 PM UPDATE: Our friends at Beacon Hill Blog reported, via Twitter, they just got a package delivered by UPS – after 9 pm. So if you’re waiting, there’s still hope.
MIDNIGHT: This thread stays up overnight – like Tuesday, our morning post will open at 4 am, and we’ll be on live-update watch by 5:30-ish. Going to go update the links/open/close post now, since there’s a fair amount of info available about what’s planned Wednesday (as in, today).
12:15 AM UPDATE: The Times has posted the followup to what we’re sure was the smash hit story of their site on Tuesday — the saltlessness shocker — today, why (some) environmentalists say “huh? sand is worse!”
12:33 AM UPDATE: As for Cliff Mass‘s latest post (Tuesday night), he doesn’t seem to know what’s going to happen with the weather today either.
1:10 AM NOTE: Not West Seattle, but — 3 am is when our favorite Christmas website, NORAD Tracks Santa, goes live. If you’re wide awake and looking to get in the holiday mood, you’ll find it here.
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