Mixed Blessings

Hello all,

Sunset over temple spire.

Farrell writing this week. Regular week in Anchorage, except ...for the exceptionally warm temperatures for this time of year. We had one evening that topped out at 50F at 9:00PM after staying near 40F for most of the day. It is a very strange January for here. One member at church today said he is ready to leave the Portland weather behind and get back to Anchorage weather. 

Walkway cover blown onto freeway.

And that's not all...Winds reached up to 132mph last night. I would hear a thump once in awhile but slept through most of it. We went to church in the dark and rain this morning but didn't realize the extent of the damage until we drove home. A pedestrian walkway over the freeway south a few hundred yards from where we live lost its heavy cover and chain link fence. It all ended up on the freeway and took about 6 hours to get off the roadway. We are grateful no one was hurt as there is an Elementary School nearby. 

Flooding on Lake Otis Parkway.

Several large trees broke off at the trunk level and fell into streets. One missed a house by mere inches. Going to church we noticed quite a bit of water on the road. I was worried about hydroplaning, but we made it. Coming home we drove through and passed a stalled car on one of the side streets in a large puddle. As we looked back, it didn't appear occupied. Probably shouldn't have done that -- our car was not too happy with water to the top of the tires. We will drive home another way until the water is gone.

Debris from walkway on side of freeway.

All of the power in Anchorage is out. Luckily, the owners of the place we live left a nice big generator in the garage with a cord that plugs into a transfer switch at the back of the house -- wouldn't live here without it. This outage is likely to be long because it is so widespread. Wouldn't surprise me to see it extend for a week or so. (It only lasted until 12:30 a.m. Monday morning. Some homes are still without power.)

Blue insulated concrete forms blown onto Brayton Dr.

We were getting calls regarding the temple site -- stuff blowing all over. We brought it to the attention of the General Contractor as we left church as he's in our ward. I was worried it was the big sheets of heavy corrugated steel the they use for decking over the structural steel. On inspection, turns out they were bundled together and didn't move at all. Only a few loose ones were on the side of the road that we saw. There were big ICF foam blocks blown down the street some distance. 

Items knocked over inside trailer.

Our Visitors' Center didn't fare so well. One set of metal entry stairs dislodged and blew over -- not the ones we use. The trailer is now sitting in a puddle about a foot deep and one end has moved a good 4-5 feet over and down a bit on one end. It is a miracle the wind didn't turn the whole thing over. They will have to set it back on the original spot with an extendable forklift. Then they will have to reset all of the frame stands underneath to level it up. That's after they pump the water away. We haven't looked inside but there is a pretty good chance things are stirred up a bit with some minor broken glass. All the plumbing to holding tanks also will need to be checked out. It doesn't look like any of this interfered with any of the construction activity -- just some time to put staged materials back in place. The temple is generally closed on Mondays so there was time to put the fence back up before the parking lot was filled up with patrons or necessitating cancelling sessions. (Folding chairs, hot/cold water cooler, storage cabinet, and shelf items knocked over. Only minor damage inside and no broken glass. Kitty spent time clearing off the shelves and computer table, then putting the storage unit back to rights. Then she had to go home. Walking inside the trailer while having it so off balance was making her nauseous.) 

Fence down & our Visitor's Center (far left) off blocks.

The construction team has been working on putting up the ICF perimeter walls for several months. Friday they completed the last section with a final concrete pour. That is not all the concrete but just that used on the exterior wall. This is a real milestone. The wall has steel plates embedded in it which provides part of the footing for the overhead structural steel. Through some agile sequencing, they have been able to put up most of the steel while they continued to put up the wall. After about a week for the concrete to cure, they can then mount the steel in the last area. Then they will move on to placing decking and concrete on the rest of the building.

Kitty has been meticulously going back over the last 46 weekly reports we have produced to correct any minor format flaws along with minor upgrades. As we get better we look back and see weaknesses in our earlier attempts. We have been here for 67 weeks but the temple building didn't start until 21 weeks after we arrived. I am proud of her tenaciousness and skills. So glad to have her company. I have been putting together lists and charts of everyone in the organization who has worked on this project. That includes the Church, the General Contractor, the architect firm, and any subcontractors. What is amazing in putting this together is the snapshot of what has been accomplished. I am also working with the architect interior designer to put together the design elements of the temple. That will take some time to develop. Time flies when you are having fun.

What has changed is that there are now five different places on site you can duck into to get warm. A couple are just warm enough to take the chill off while the others are actually very warm. One is in the basement area by the font, where they are marking out all the overhead plumbing lines on the floor. Most of the contractors use tablets to reference the plans. Then they use a laser to transpose lines to the ceiling where they install screw in anchors. These hold all-thread for pipe bands. It is a pretty neat way to do it. So much easier than trying to do it all overhead. Thank goodness for lasers. I can't imagine doing any of this without them. I'm amazed at what the pioneers did with their early tools.

We are going down the street tonight if the power comes back on to visit with the neighbors and other company as we have an informal presentation from the Kiddle's. They recently returned from a one year mission in Cypress. (The power didn't come back on, but the Spencer's have a generator and a nice wood stove. There were about a dozen of us and we enjoyed the company.)

We had a good visit with our mission leaders, President & Sister Larsen, after sacrament meeting today. They are so busy and usually on the road. They just arrived back from an annual training session in Seattle with Elder Bednar and the Area Presidency. An interesting comment they picked up. The "temple" is a building. The "House of the Lord" is a better way to refer to it. The Area President, Elder Bragg, has been busy lately. He's a General Authority Seventy and covers the West, including California. As far as they know, no church buildings have been lost in CA. One LDS chapel had everything around it burn. Thirty plus members of our church and their families have lost their homes with another 1000 members evacuated. Water is the supply most needed. Wish we could send them some of ours.

There was an announcement of new mission leaders recently. Our current ones (Evan & Mindy Larsen) will leave the end of June. The new ones are James & Melody Ledesma. He is currently a church employee managing the self-reliance program. They are coming from the Philippines. One of our ward members works at Costco in the meat department. He says most of the workers are Pilipino in that department. We also have wards and missionaries serving that group. So, I'm sure his call here is inspired.

We hope all of you are doing well. Keep in touch. We so enjoy hearing from you. #Think Celestial

Love, Elder and Sister Badger