Who's still without power after the western Washington bomb cyclone

Caitlyn Freeman, The Seattle Times on Nov 23, 2024

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

SEATTLE — More than 95,000 customers in the region remained without power Saturday, four days after a deadly bomb cyclone battered Western Washington.

Deadly, easterly winds of up to 74 mph hit Tuesday, leaving more than half a million customers without power, injuring dozens and killing two people.

The storm’s aftermath has left utilities scrambling to restore power. Crews for internet providers, too, are working feverishly, even as the biggest companies refuse to disclose the number of outages and offer online maps that can be impossible for customers to read.

As of 9 a.m. Saturday, more than 86,400 Puget Sound Energy customers still had no electricity, dropping to 80,000 by noon.

More customers were set to get power back Saturday afternoon, continuing through 10 a.m. Monday, according to the PSE website. PSE on Friday pushed back estimated restoration times.

“Due to the substantial amount of damage we are encountering from the hurricane force winds of the storm, which has made our work slower than expected, we had to push back estimated restoration times for customers,” the utility said in a Saturday advisory.

PSE provides electricity to eight counties in Western Washington, including on King County’s Eastside, which has seen some of the worst damage.

The utility reported Saturday that crews planned to prioritize restoring power to schools. PSE said it has repaired 47 of 49 substations and was now focused on “the neighborhood distribution lines serving smaller pockets of customers” — work that can be “time-consuming and slow-going.”

The Seattle City Light outage map showed more than 1,200 customers without power, while 7,300 Snohomish County Public Utility District customers, according to its map, remained in the dark as of early Saturday afternoon.

Numbers on the City Light outage map fluctuate, sometimes appearing worse minute by minute, but that’s normal.

“You will sometimes see fluctuations in the numbers of customers out as we work to complete repairs,” City Light spokesperson Jenn Strang said in an email. “There are often times when we need to deenergize additional customers so that our crews can safely access equipment.”

City Light serves Seattle, Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, Burien, Renton, Tukwila, SeaTac, Normandy Park and unincorporated King County.

City Light reported the restoration estimate for Lake Forest Park is Saturday afternoon. Broken equipment caused delays.

Similar to PSE, Snohomish County PUD said the complexity of repairs is slowing restoration.

“We anticipate a majority of existing outages will be restored by end of day Sunday, but some outages in severely damaged areas will linger into early next week,” the utility said in an update early Saturday.

While workers continue to untangle whole trees and big branches from power lines and reinstall power poles, the weather for the crews and for all of us will be mild, according to the National Weather Service.

Saturday and Sunday, temperatures are expected to range from the high 40s to low 50s, with scattered showers. Southerly winds may reach up to 14 mph Saturday.

Steve Reddy, a meteorologist for Seattle’s National Weather Service branch, said another low-pressure system is moving toward Washington but is not nearly as severe as the cyclone.

“We probably see a system make its way onshore, probably around Tuesday but it’s tracking to the south of us, so its impact to Western Washington in general might just be a few showers,” he said. “And then after that, starting around midweek, we start to see a ridge build in and that should dry us off.”

———

(Staff reporter Heidi Groover contributed to this story.)