I grew up on the Gulf (of MEXICO . . . ) Coast near Houston. The earliest memory I have of anything is my 4-year old self being carried by my Dad through our blacked-out house through waist-deep water. Went through the house, through the garage, and went to our next door neighbor's house, and old-time house stacked up on pillars of cinder blocks; we kids used to run in and out from under it playing hide and seek.
It was Hurricane Audrey (or Carla, I don't remember which) coming ashore about 100 miles east of us in Louisiana, kicking up big wind and lots and lots of rain. I remember my Dad climbing their front steps as you'd climb steps out of a swimming pool. It got even with the floor of their front porch, one step below the floor of that old tin-roofed, wooden house, and stopped their, luckily. The grown-ups sat up all night with a battery radio, a kerosene lamp, and coffee off the gas stove even as the electricity was long gone.
They made us kids pallets on the floor, and I will always remember laying there and hearing the water slapping right under the floor my pillow was on. Next day it had moved on, the water went down, and our house was wrecked from the water though still largely intact. About as miserable as things get.
Hope all you guys in the NW get through it.
