Something happened to Guemes between the Thanksgiving Day flood of 1990 and the Gulf War of 1991. In a season of disasters, a combination of pernicious cold and brutalizing wind changed the face of this island. For all of us, but especially for the children, the almost unimaginable power of Nature has become a personal experience.
We now know that when scientists speak of significant changes in weather patterns, using abstract terms like Global Warming, the reality behind their words can be stunningly physical. We also know that if the holiday storms were in some way caused by the greenhouse effect, they were but a tiny taste of what is on the menu for this continent.
Thankfully nobody was killed or seriously injured, at least no two-legged creatures. There can be no doubt that some forest-dwelling animals died, along with thousands of one-legged creatures (the trees). The deer and birds seemed confused for days afterward-those that survived the destruction and bitter cold. But Nature itself will continue, and the massive changes in the forests will offer new opportunities to both aunt flora and uncle fauna.
But for us, this is perhaps foremost a human story, and the Myth of Guemes has been enriched. Who will forget the man so terrified by trees falling on his tiny cabin that he went off into the dark forest to lie protected under trees already down? How about the folks who had a tree limb, completely trimmed of branches, sprout from the middle of their ceiling like some Post Modern work of art? Or the way the islanders rose to the occasion with candles and kerosene lamps, with soup pots bubbling on wood stoves, and everywhere chainsaws creating a music that turned Guemes into a throaty symphony? 
The Volunteer Fire Department, Puget Power, Skagit County Public Works, the State Department of Natural Resources and General Telephone all had crews working – some of them around the – clock to make the island livable again, and we all feel gratitude.
Now that some of the deep loss, the grieving, has passed, we see warm sunlight illuminating parts of the forest that were always damp and dark; the fawns don’t seem frightened anymore, and the thrushes find the ground soft enough for wiggly snacks; there’s even a rumor going around that the robins are back.
-Jim Bertolino