Thousands still without power in areas east of Pierce County after windstorm
Thousands in the greater Pierce County areas continue to be without power Monday following a strong windstorm over the weekend.
Many of the outages are concentrated in east Pierce County, with 3,000 customers without power south of Bonney Lake, according to the Puget Sound Energy outage map. In the Carbonado area, around 2,000 customers do not have power.
Around 400 people face outages east of Graham, and there are also outages north of the Kapowsin area.
PSE reports there are 298 active outages with 17,423 customers affected throughout its service area, including in Thurston and other parts of Western Washington as of 7:54 a.m.
The majority of customers in Pierce County should have power restored by the end of Tuesday, according to Puget Sound Energy. Outages that are in the Cascade foothills could continue into Wednesday because of damage in areas including Prairie Ridge, Victor Falls and Ponderosa Estates, according to PSE’s website.
“High winds combined with saturated grounds and seasonal foliage led to many tree failures that impacted transmission lines. The most damage to PSE’s transmission system occurred between South King and Pierce County. Transmission needs to be repaired before we can start restoring power on the distribution system,” the company says.
Heavy winds and rain had knocked power out in the Puget Sound over the weekend, with 148,000 customers affected Sunday morning. PSE says crews are making progress in restoring power to customers impacted by the storm.
School closures/delays
- Carbonado School District: closed
- Orting School District: Two-hour delay, no AM preschool, no out-of-district transportation
