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•  On November 20th there was a big windstorm in western Washington.
•  Did you have a lot of wind at your house? 
•  Some places escaped the high winds, but many areas in northwestern Washington were hit hard!
• What do you mean by that? “some places were hit hard.”
•  I mean some places had a lot of wind. They were affected by the storm. The storm hit those places hard.
•  What were some of the areas that were hit hard – had a lot of wind?
• Well, Issaquah, Renton, Bellevue and Shoreline were some hard-hit areas. There were wind gusts of over 70 mph in some areas. 
• Gusts? What are gusts of wind? Gusts are increases in wind speed.  Gusts are sudden and brief, lasting only about 20 seconds. 
• The average speed of wind that is blowing over time is called sustained wind.  When the speed of the wind is more than 34 mph it is called a windstorm.  Here are some examples of wind speeds during the windstorm in November: Enumclaw–77 mph wind gust, Federal Way–57 mph, Sea-Tac Airport-55 mph.
  •  Wow! Definitely a windstorm! What problems can windstorms cause?
  •  High winds can cause lots of problems; trees can fall onto houses or cars. Fallen trees can block roads.  I know of at least two people who died during the November windstorm.
    • Windstorms can damage power lines.  A power line is a thick cable that carries electricity from one place to another. A system or network of power lines carries electricity from the source, the place it comes from – a dam or power plant, for example – to where it is used – like our homes, schools and apartment buildings.
  •  How does the wind damage power lines?
  • Windstorms can blow tree branches or entire trees onto power lines. This can make the power lines fall to the ground. The wind can also make power lines move around wildly and swing together. When the lines touch, it causes a short circuit that stops the electricity from flowing through the lines.
• What happens when power lines are damaged in a windstorm?
• The power or electrical system is interrupted.  Businesses, schools and homes lose their power. After a windstorm I might ask you “Do you have  power?  Or… “Do you have electricity?”   Or.. “Do you have lights?”
• We use “power”, “electricity” and “lights” interchangeably to mean the same thing when we talk about electricity.  To talk about when the electricity stopped working, we say “The power/electricity /lights went out at 8 last night.” Or “We lost our power/electricity or lights last night.”  To talk about when the electricity started working again, we say “The power/electricity/lights came back on this morning.” To ask if another person’s electricity stopped working, we say “Did your power (or lights or electricity) go out last night?”
• During the windstorm in November more than 600,000 people in western Washington lost their power. It took 2 – 3 days to restore or bring back power to all those people.

A lot of people had a conversation like this after the windstorm:
Ann: That was quite a storm last night, wasn’t it?
Beth: You’d better believe it!  Did you get hit hard?
Ann: Yeah, the wind was blowing like crazy all night. We had gusts of 60 mph. How about you? 
Beth: We were lucky! It wasn’t windy here at all. Did your lights go out? 
Ann: Oh yeah! Our lights went out at about 7:30 and we still don’t have power.
Beth: Gosh! I’m so sorry. Do you know when your electricity will come back on?
Ann: They say we might have power by this afternoon.
Beth: I sure hope so! It’s not easy to live without electricity.
Ann: You’ve got that right!

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