Windstorm passes, leaving power outages in its wake
Meteorologists say we’ve seen the last of a windstorm that barreled through the Northwest this morning, knocking out power to thousands and causing traffic problems.
Winds have slowed throughout the region and power has been restored to many. Most of the roads closed due to downed trees and power lines have been reopened.
The Weather Service has issued a snow advisory for the passes this evening with the possibility of four to eight inches falling near Steven’s Pass.
The National Weather Service reported sustained winds of up to 36 mph at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport at about noon today, with gusts of up to 47 mph about the same time.
The hardest-hit region was in northwest Washington near Bellingham, where instruments recorded a peak gust of 97 mph at about 9 a.m. Sustained winds at the Bellingham airport reached 47 mph.
Toppled trees and downed power lines halted traffic on some Northwest roads todayA tree hit a truck around 4:30 a.m. on Northeast Novelty Hill Road and 208th Avenue Northeast in Redmond. The driver was not seriously injured, police said.
Downed trees closed Highway 2 in both directions near Index in Snohomish County at about 2 p.m., according to the state transportation department. The highway reopened a short time later. Some 13,000 Puget Sound Energy customers lost power due to high winds. Most outages are in Whatcom, Skagit, Island, Kitsap counties, said a PSE spokeswoman. About 3,000 outages were reported in King County.
Some 3,900 Seattle City Light customers lost power in Burien because of a failed feeder line this morning, but power has been restored.
A limb fell on a line this morning in Monroe, causing 8,000 Snohomish County Public Utility District customers to lose power for several hours. Power has been restored there, as well as to 1,400 customers in the Lake Stevens area, said PUD spokesman Neil Neroutsos.
Johnny Burg, a Weather Service meteorologist, said the storm is one of the “typical windstorms we get every late fall” and could be comparable to the windstorm that swept across central Puget Sound last month.
“There are some good gusts in there for your usual, typical storm, but we usually get something like this every winter, every fall,” he said.
In the Oct. 18 storm, tens of thousands of people lost power, typically due to downed trees, and a 44-year-old man died while kite surfing on Lake Washington.
There didn’t appear to be any serious injuries as a result of today’s storm.
Snoqualmie Pass east of Seattle had wet snow and slush on a 20-mile stretch of Interstate 90 from the summit to Easton, transportation officials said.
Christina Siderius: csiderius@seattletimes.com
The Associated Press and Seattle Times Eastside bureau reporter Ashley Bach contributed to this report.