Although a flood watch remains in effect until late Thursday, Pierce County emergency management staff members said Tuesday there had been no signs of flooding or reports of major landslides.
“It is on our radar but we haven’t heard anything yet,” Emergency Management spokeswoman Sheri Badger said.
The National Weather Service said the Skokomish River is at the greatest risk of flooding but the Puyallup River near Orting could also overflow.
“If flooding does occur, it will probably be minor,” according to the watch advisory.
Tuesday’s storm brought about one quarter to 1 inch of rain to the South Sound. Forecasters said another one half to 2 inches is likely over the south slopes of the Olympic Mountains and higher terrain of southwest Washington through Tuesday night.
More rain is expected today and the snow level will drop from 7,000 feet to about 3,000 feet.
A wind advisory was in effect until midnight Tuesday with winds ranging from 15 to 30 mph and gusts between 45 and 50 mph.
The strong winds concerned utility companies still working to repair downed power lines from last week’s ice and snow storms.
Puget Sound Energy crews brought power back to a significant chunk of customers who have been out-of-service since the middle of last week. They started the day with 280 crews in the field tackling about 27,000 households. About 17,000 customers still do not have electricity.
The utility says it has restored power to more than 394,000 customers and is still working to bring the last 4 percent of its customers online. In Pierce County on Tuesday, the utility focused on Bonney Lake, Buckley, Carbonado, Wilkeson and South Prairie homes and businesses.
A spokesman said the crews were moving slower now because they are going from home to home, bringing power back to 10 or 20 customers at a time.
PSE customers who have been without electric service for 120 consecutive hours or longer may be eligible to receive a $50 credit on their PSE bills after the outage is reported. For more information, please visit the Customer Service Guarantees page on PSE.com or call 888-225-5773.
Staff writer Stacey Mulick contributed to this report.
Stacia Glenn: 253-597-8653
stacia.glenn@thenewstribune.com
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