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PUGET SOUND — The rain, the wind, the ice, the snow; the ice, the snow, the wind, again. It was a dark and stormy night and day—for two months during the recent wave of weather in the Seattle area. Many churches became so accustomed to cancelled services, roadside rescues, and housing power-challenged congregants, it almost became normal.
Camino Island's Camano Chapel Office Manager Karen Leggee thought they had it a little rough.
"They are now calling Camino Hill Road ‘Camino Pass,’ because it's been so treacherous lately," she said. "We cancelled a service. It's been so iced up, and the church was freezing. We put signs out … then we stayed home and watched the Seahawks lose."
Leggee also recalled one day in mid-January when her husband Mike was on his way up the hill while bringing his Bob-Cat to the church to scrape ice off the driveway. In his rear view mirror he saw a vehicle behind him spin and go over the edge on Camino Hill Road, so he went back and dug them out.
Pastor Jim Jensen at Community Church of Joy in Sammamish said things got pretty wild for them as well.
"The power outage was the hardest, when we got the winds," he said. "People were sleeping in their basements so they wouldn't get hit with a tree. Then one man had a tree come through his [roof and into the] room where he would have been sleeping. This was in Ames Lake. After that, he went out to his neighbors, and while he was there a tree came down on [their] house, too."
For Jensen, one power outage the week before Christmas brought about a rare moment for the more hardy members who made it to Sunday morning service. The service had been cancelled, but about a third of his 80 regular congregants showed up anyway. With a sanctuary temperature at 41 degrees, they relocated to the slightly warmer Narthex.
"We still had a good service. They moved the piano in there and circled their chairs,” he said. “We prayed. Lots of people shared their testimony, things that happened in the storms. We talked about what had transpired in their neighborhoods. People had helped each other and basically relied on their faith."
After the winds died down, a Boy Scout Troop that meets regularly at the church showed up one Saturday with a chain saw and cut up the fallen trees on the church lawn. "They did a good job," Jensen said.
Crossroads Bible Church in Bellevue had power during the storms but many people in the area didn't. They were open one Sunday night for anyone who wanted a hot meal and a warm place to sleep.
"People had been without power for a couple of days. Some were without power for over a week," said Betsy Erkolini, church receptionist.
West of Lake Sammamish, Calvary Chapel Eastside's Assistant Pastor Merlyn Linden was touched by how the congregation met adversity.
"The main roads were closed, covered with ice. People had to take back roads to come in," he said. "I was really taken by the soldiering on in the face of this emergency. So many of them attended services, although many of them were late.
“One woman in our congregation who is in charge of women's ministries was iced into her driveway for a full week, yet used the time to make [ministry] phone calls from her house."
Men volunteered to clear ice and snow to allow access to the building. The church was able to provide shelter at their Lakemont Lodge location where people could build fires for warmth. They opened their own wood supply for those who needed wood for a fireplace or wood stove.
"Those who had power opened up their homes to those in and out of the church to come over and have dinner," Linden said. "A lady here has an elder care in her home. She wasn't able to get out to buy necessities, so one of the men brought her eggs and milk and other food. People gave rides to each other to church."
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