Saturday, October 15, 2016, Typhoon Songda

The "Storm of the Century" was hammering the west coast from Seattle to northern California.  We got a lot of rain at Turtle Rock in Gold Beach (the four day total was more than 10 inches) but the worst of the wind gusts were tempered by the hill that anchors our RV park.

We donned our rain gear and walked to the highway 101 overpass a few times to see the storm surge at high tide.  The turtle was completely surrounded by water.  Hunter Creek broke through to the ocean and the calm lake like water was replaced with a swollen torrent.

We are standing under the 101 highway overpass and having to brace ourselves when a wind gust made it hard to stay upright.

Looking east, the sleepy Hunter creek had broken through to the ocean and is now flowing with the tides.

We got to experience standing in 80 mph winds.  It was not a good idea to be standing in the blowing sand.  I'm sure if I needed paint removed from something it would not have taken long.

Silly me, I tried to walk on the beach when there was a break in the rain.  The wind kicked back up and I was being sandblasted.  Since I was in shorts, it felt bad enough that I ran back to the shelter of the highway overpass.

As the waves crested, the wind whipped the water into a fine spray that looked like smoke.