Point Reyes Light - December 9, 2004
Gale-force winds devastate Inverness art studio
By Jim Kravets
At their home on the ridgeline above Inverness Park, the wind off the ocean can be fierce. All the same, painter Kathleen Goodwin accused her photographer husband of "being a party-pooper" Monday night when he called off their evening plans in the face of a building storm.
The couple had arranged to spend the night in San Francisco, "but Richard thought the weather was too crazy," Goodwin recalled, "so he said we should stay home."
"About 8:15 p.m., when the power went out," she added, "I was really disappointed. I thought, we could instead be having a good old time in North Beach!"
From Monday afternoon until early Tuesday, a storm off the Pacific dropped almost 2.5 inches of rain in West Marin, with the height of the storm between 8 p.m. and 1 p.m.
Strong-gale gusts
At 12:30 a.m., Mount Barnaby’s weather station recorded wind gusting to more than 45 mph (gale force), on Inverness Ridge the wind gusted to 50 mph (strong-gale force) a couple of times. At the same time, gusts of almost 60 mph (strong gale) were recorded at the Big Rock Ridge weather station.
(A second storm Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, while packing lighter winds, dropped an additional 2.75 inches of rain, as recorded atop Mount Barnaby in Lagunitas.)
As Monday’s gale began to shake their home around 11 p.m., Monday, Blair went outside to check on a studio where they store their artwork. Blair was shocked by what his flashlight revealed.
"Shattered glass and a half-inch of water covered the studio floor," he said. The winds had blown in the studio’s four-foot- by-eight-foot sliding glass door, which then shattered against a table. Driving rain poured in the open doorway, covering framed photographs which hung on the walls. "We just had Open Studios," Blair said, "so we had about 60 to 70 framed photographs out."
Nailing up plywood in the midst of a gale
Goodwin and Blair fought high winds to nail plywood over the shattered doorway. "Try to carry a sheet of plywood in 50 mph wind," Blair said. "It’s a thrill. I climbed a ladder in the dark and nailed the stupid thing up. It was phenomenal. Nails were blowing out of the jar."
Blair said the 1995 Inverness Ridge Fire burned down any windbreaks the couple’s house once had. "The trees used to really block the wind," he said. "Now, since the fire, the winds on the ridge have been crazy."
The couple spent the next two hours mopping up water and sweeping up 30 to 40 pounds of glass shards littering the floor. "We’re in our 50s," Blair said. "We were both completely exhausted and a little cut up. It’s amazing how much glass is in one of those big doors."
Blair said the shattered door had been installed only two months ago, and he acknowledged the risk of having a large window on a windy ridge. "I always wondered what would happen if a big window blew out in a storm," he said. "There’s such a thin, little line of protection with the glass. And if it goes, you’re basically outdoors again."
How much art lost?
The couple has yet to determine how much artwork was lost to the storm. "It’s hard to know exactly how much yet," said Blair. "But we lost a lot." Fortunately, he said, the negatives are safe, and reprints are possible. Blair shudders to think what would have happened had the couple not been home.
"He now feels vindicated for being a party-pooper," Goodwin said.
Trampoline went flying
Other reports of damage were less dramatic but demonstrated that Monday night’s windstorm was powerful throughout West Marin. A family on Wynn Lane in Point Reyes Station found large sheets of corrugated steel had blown into their yard, from where they did not know. Meanwhile the wind picked up a trampoline in their yard and left it in a neighbor’s.