Thousands of Pierce County residents without power from intense windstorm on Wednesday
Thousands of Pierce County residents woke up without power due to a Pacific storm that brought in strong winds overnight.
A wind advisory was issued Tuesday with the county predicted to see gusts of up to 40 to 45 miles per hour.
A gust of 60 mph was recorded in Tacoma about 4:50 a.m. Wednesday, the National Weather Service reported, with a 47 mph gust in Bonney Lake about 5:20 a.m.
More than 13,000 power outages were reported in Tacoma and parts of Pierce County about 7:20 a.m., according to the Tacoma Public Utilities outage map. TPU says it is aware of the outages and are working to “safely and quickly restore power.”
There are also reports of downed trees, power lines across roads and some traffic lights that are not working Wednesday morning, TPU said in a post.
As of 1 p.m., about 1,680 TPU customers are without power. TPU wrote in a post they are prioritizing clearing downed power lines and restoring power for “vital infrastructure” such as schools.
Puget Sound Energy’s outage map showed several thousand Pierce County residents without power, including in Orting, Graham, Puyallup and Edgewood.
“Our crews are ready to deploy with assignments when outages occur, as soon as it’s safe to do so. As we prepare for storm conditions, we encourage customers to do the same,” PSE wrote on X on Tuesday.
Thousands in the Key Peninsula are also without power, according to Peninsula Light Company’s outage map.
PLC said on X it is not possible at the moment to determine the estimated time power will be restored.
“Trees down all over the system and area. Crews working outages and clearing transmission line so we can pick up as many members as possible on the KP,” the post said.
The outage has also affected Sound Transit with ticket vending machines/ORCA card validators and emergency phones in the Lakewood and South Tacoma stations being down.
“Credit/Cash transactions and ORCA transactions cannot be completed by passengers at the Ticket Vending Machines. ORCA card validators cannot be used to tap on or off. Passengers can still purchase tickets digitally by downloading the Transit Go app,” according to Sound Transit.
Sound Transit announced at around 8:40 a.m. that ticket vending machines/ORCA card validators and emergency phones are back up.
Several Metro Parks Tacoma facilities have been impacted, according to its X account.
- Meadow Park Golf Course is closed until 10:00 A.M.
- Point Defiance Park and attractions are closed due to power outage and trees down, including Fort Nisqually and the marina.
- Star Center closed due to power outage.
Road closures
Downed trees and power lines have closed some roads to close in Pierce County.
Eastbound Valley Avenue from 58th Avenue East to 70th Avenue East is closed with local access only in Fife. Alternate routes are advised for drivers, according to the police department.
Pioneer Way is closed from Bentley Road to Woodland Avenue East near Midland, the Sheriff’s Department wrote on X.
Delays for Pierce County schools
Several Pierce County school districts have announced late starts as a result of the storm.
- Orting School District will have a 2 hour late start, with no A.M. preschool. School is closed for Orting Middle School.
- Carbonado School District is closed, according to a 9:30 a.m. update.
- Fife School District will start 2 hours late, no A.M. preschool.
- White River School District will have a 2 hour late start, no A.M. preschool.
- Peninsula School District will start two hours late from downed trees and power lines.
This story was originally published December 18, 2024 at 7:55 AM.
