The powerful wind storm that blew down trees, telephone poles and littered local roads with debris also knocked out power to 238,000 residents in western Washington, according to Puget Sound Energy. Approximately 50,000 resident remain without power as of 7 p.m. on Sunday, including approximately 1,500 in Kirkland according to PSE.com. Most of the current outages in Kirkland are in the north end of the city.
“We have 60 line crews and 16 tree crews working to help with restoration efforts, including additional crews brought into the area from as far as British Columbia,” said PSE spokesperson Christina Donegan.
There are approximately 1,100 customers without power in King County. PSE was able to restore power to an estimated 20,000 customers between 2-7 p.m. on Sunday.
“Crews made steady progress throughout the day, restoring power to customers in thousands of different locations from Whatcom to Thurston to Kitsap and King Counties,” Donegan said. “We understand customer’s frustration at the time it takes to investigate damage and estimate when power will be restored. There’s a lot of work to do.”
In addition to strong winds, most trees still have their leaves and many of them have been stressed by recent drought conditions, making them more susceptible to snapping or falling, according to PSE. In many cases, old-growth trees uprooted, falling across roadways, on utility poles and through power wires.
PSE officials are estimating that all residents in north King County will have power restored by 6 p.m. on Tuesday.