Archive for January, 2008
Thursday, January 24th, 2008
Early this morning a home in Battleground had a 2 alarm fire caused by embers. Yesterday, after cleaning out the wood stove embers that were in a bucket on the back porch floated up to the attic area and it caught on fire. The home is now uninhabitable.
Because it was so cold it made the work more difficult for the Battleground firefighters because the water would turn into ice when hitting the walkways and driveway.
Cascade Coatings & Construction which is a Vancouver area Restoration company servicing Battleground would like to encourage homeowners to make sure that when they have a bucket of embers to soak them completely in water and put them far away from the home. In case you have experienced a fire and need your home boarded up or need reconstruction or repair services to bring your home back to a pre-loss condition Cascade Coatings & Construction can be reached at: 360-723-0698.
Posted in Vancouver News | No Comments »
Thursday, January 24th, 2008
The sun was shining all day today around Vancouver, Washington. Okay, we’ll include Portland, Oregon on this one. Wow, it was beautiful. 2 days in a row as a matter of fact. Yes, it’s a bit chilly in the morning and in the evening but the daytime is very comfortable, warm and sunny.
For the California transplants this was a very welcome day. It’s a day that could just keep going on and on and on for months and nobody would complain. You could’ve even worn shorts today outside. Something inside of you just said: Oh… let this be the weather for the next 2 months.. but, I have to break the news to you.. we are in the Pacific Northwest and this was a simple but beautiful break that reminds us of why we live in Portland - Vancouver (the scenery - amongst other reasons).
So, squeeze as much sunlight out of the big yellow ball in the sky while it’s visible and brace yourself for a bit more moisture as we head into what will undoubtedly be a wonderful spring in a couple more months.
Posted in Vancouver Weather | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008
Today will go down in history as a day the feds made a huge move by slicing the federal funds rate a whopping .75% to try and put some stimulus back into the American economy. Of course some wonder: too little too late? If you were watching your financial portfolios today you were no doubt pleased by the news especially after waking up to a 450 point drop on the Dow.
Many investors were panicking especially in light of the major worldwide market sell 0ffs. Some indexes fell so much people wonder how long it will take to return to their highs. The question remains if this fed rate cut will help our economy and keep our economy out of an outright recession. Job losses are happening across the country as well as a major housing slump resulting in a very different financial landscape from where we were just 1 or 2 years ago.
As goes housing - so goes the rest of the economy - people could argue. It seems this thought plays out in 2007/2008. With the housing industry in a major slump we have lot’s of unemployed construction workers and that issues spreads over the entire employment food chain.
Take cover… things may be rocky for some time to come.
Posted in Vancouver Business | No Comments »
Monday, January 21st, 2008
Nick Daschel, Columbian Staff Writer set out with his daughter to determine if they the two of them could go to a Blazers game, pay for parking, buy tickets, get a decent seat, enjoy dinner and purchase a few fun items. The answer: Yup. They did it…
Read the entire story: $100 night out with the Blazers!
Posted in Vancouver Sports | No Comments »
Monday, January 21st, 2008
The Vancouver Lake Crew received a donation of 14 boats from Seattle’s Lake Union Crew rowing club on Saturday. Needless to say the Vancouver Lake Crew members were ecstatic to receive the boats. The Vancouver Lake Crew lost their boats in the recent Tornado to hit Vancouver that damaged 50 boats and other items at the club.
The club members received lots of help in cleaning up after the Tornado. The rowing community is a tight knit group and they are willing to help each other when possible. In fact, the Vancouver Lake Crew had already received 22 boats from other donors before receiving this new set of boats from Seattle. Even the Ranier Rowing Club wanted to donate boats.
Other rowing clubs that have offered help are from Ashland, Oregon, Portland and Tacoma, Washington. They even received a call from a rowing club in Idaho. Fred Myers donated $5,000. The Vancouver Rotary Club is planning on donating $6,000 and the club has received another $20,000 in donations.
Wow, it’s so neat to see people get behind the Vancouver Lake Crew with all these donations and help in cleaning the property. This really speaks well of our community can unite to help kids have a healthy fun activity to be involved in..esp.. on beautiful Lake Washington.
Posted in Vancouver News | No Comments »
Saturday, January 19th, 2008
On Sunday Jan. 13th 2008 Mt. St. Helens let off some steam accompanied by a small earthquake registering 2.9 in magnitude. The last notable tremor was Oct. 2, 2004 which was felt as far away as Bend, Oregon all the way up to Bellingham, Washington. The 2004 tremor prompted the evacuation of the Johnson Ridge Observatory.
Scientists at the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver constantly monitor Mt. St. Helens with all types of sophisticated gauges to try and understand the condition of the Volcano and the possibility of future eruptions. Also, of note, is watching the lava dome grow back. Currently, they have backed off of any excursions into the crater for a couple of days.
It is said that since the fall of 2004 over 123 million cubit yards of material have erupted from the mountain. Although the rate amount of material erupting has slowed.
The tremor on on Sunday lasted an hour and a half.
Posted in Vancouver News | 1 Comment »
Saturday, January 19th, 2008
Clark County is offering free disposal of last weekstornado damage debris. They will offer coupons for disposal of debris related to last weeks tornado in Vancouver. You might want to log into their website or call the main office for details.
Last weeks tornado did cause a significant amount of damage an this is a helpful gesture from Clark County to help the tornado victims with debris disposal.
Posted in Vancouver News | No Comments »
Saturday, January 19th, 2008
According to the National Weather Service this weekend will be the coldest for the year so far in the cities of Vancouver and Portland and all over Southern Washington. Already, around Vancouver and the outlying areas we are seeing ponds freezing over indicating how cold the weather has been. Well, now this weekend it will be colder.
Lower elevations should be seeing some snow with perhaps over a foot of snow in the Cascades. Bundle up.. It’s gonna get cold! Saturday and Sunday will be in the 40’s and the night time temps will be very chilly in the 20’s and 30’s.
Sunday snow levels should be about 500 feet. Grab your sleds! Sunshine on Monday - put sleds away… unless your taking a trip to the higher elevations. In which case you will be able to take advantage of lot’s of fresh powder.
Or perhaps take a trip up to Cougar with your snowmobiles for a fun day in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. A few weeks ago we found a great spot for sledding off the side of the road on the way to Ape Caves.
Whatever you do - please enjoy this wonderful weekend.
Posted in Vancouver Weather | 2 Comments »
Friday, January 18th, 2008
Last week Vancouver had a Tornado that caused damage to several homes and also damaged the boat club at Lake Washington. Several trees were knocked down.
Posted in Vancouver Weather | No Comments »
