Power outage woes might continue into Monday for some following windstorm
Power outages continued across the region Saturday and might last into Monday, local utilities said following Friday night’s windstorm that put over 100,000 customers in the dark across Western Washington, including in Pierce and Thurston counties.
Tacoma Public Utilities, which had 17,000 customers without power at the storm’s peak on Friday, enlisted extra crews to help on state Route 509 where transmission lines fell.
“There is extensive damage for close to one mile of transmission line,” the utility tweeted Saturday.
The falling lines took out two substations, one in Fife and the other in Lidford, in the Waller area, and blocked the highway and railroad tracks.
That knocked out power to residences in the Browns Point area and industries in and around the Port of Tacoma.
By Saturday afternoon it was mostly the industrial customers without power, spokeswoman Julie Jensen said.
Another 200-350 customers in the Point Defiance/Ruston area were without power but were expected to be restored Saturday night or Sunday, Jensen said.
At the peak of the storm 17,800 Puget Sound Energy customers were without power in Thurston County, said spokesman Andrew Padula. Another 7,800 customers were in the dark in Pierce County.
By Saturday afternoon only 119 customers were still powerless in Thurston County.
“Our goal is to have everybody up by this evening,” Padula said Saturday afternoon.
On Friday, numerous power outages affected rural parts of Pierce County including Elk Plain, Graham and Roy.
Peninsula Light Co. in Gig Harbor had 10,000 powerless customers during the storm, according to Q13.
At the peak of the storm, Puget Sound Energy had 110,000 customers without power around the region. That was down to 11,000 by 8 a.m. Saturday.
Rough weather remains in the forecast.
A weather system early next week is expected to bring heavy rain to the region with a potential for 2-5 inches of rain in Southwest Washington on Monday night and Tuesday.
Flooding is possible on the Skokomish River in Mason County.
A small craft advisory is in effect on Puget Sound waters with a gale warning on ocean waters off the Washington coast into Wednesday.
This story was originally published December 15, 2018 at 3:32 PM.
