Windstorm overnight downs trees, knocks out power for thousands in Pierce County
An overnight windstorm that moved through western Washington downed trees and left thousands of Pierce County residents without power Tuesday morning.
About 10,000 customers near Graham, Spanaway and Elk Plain lost power due to a downed transmission line, according to Tacoma Public Utilities. Puget Sound Energy’s outage map showed scattered outages in Pierce County with several caused by fallen trees or limbs. Power was restored to most Tacoma Public Utilities customers by about 10:45 a.m.
Bethel School District canceled school Tuesday because of the outages. According to its website, at least 15 of the district’s schools were without power.
A wind advisory was in effect Tuesday until 4 p.m. for Tacoma and the surrounding area as well as near Seattle, Bellevue and Everett.
In Tacoma , southwest winds were forecast Tuesday between 14 and 17 mph with gusts as high as 23 mph, according to the National Weather Service. Overnight winds reached 33 mph with gusts as high as 43 mph.
Wet weather was expected to resume Tuesday with new rainfall amounts expected to be between one-tenth of an inch and one-quarter of an inch, according to the weather service.
Rain was mainly forecast between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. with the possibility of a thunderstorm later in the afternoon.
This story was originally published November 9, 2021 at 7:54 AM.
