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POSTED: Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009

Windstorm batters Whatcom County again

BELLINGHAM - The windstorm that whipped through Whatcom County Wednesday night, Nov. 18, left power outages, road closures and other debris in its wake, but the weekend looks to offer relief.

Wind gusts up to 60 mph were forecast again for Thursday night, but the south winds should ease to about 15 mph Friday and Saturday, with showers likely and daytime temperatures in the high 40s through Monday.

Downed power lines caused about 200 Puget Sound Energy customers to lose electricity for significant periods of time on Wednesday night, said Abigail Elliott, PSE spokeswoman. The biggest outage occurred near Marshall Hill Road, where about 130 customers lost power from 6 p.m. Wednesday to 3 a.m. Thursday, she said.

The two smaller outages occurred near Point Whitehorn west of Ferndale. At Koehn Road and Whitehorn Way, roughly 40 customers lost power from 6 p.m. Wednesday to just after 1 a.m. Thursday. At Gulf Road and Henry Road, about 30 customers lost power from 4 to 9 p.m. Wednesday.

Customers' power was fully restored by noon Thursday, Elliott said.

Bellingham Public Works crews worked Wednesday night into Thursday morning removing fallen branches and debris from roads, said Chad Bedlington, maintenance superintendent.

Some larger trees came down near Western Washington University Wednesday night. Campus officials were most concerned about trees behind College Hall and ones blocking the Fairhaven College access road and the service road for Wade King Student Recreation Center.

Temporary access through debris in those areas was cleared late Wednesday, with more cleanup scheduled for Thursday, said Tim Wynn, campus director of facilities management.

On Lummi Island, Beach Elementary School was closed Thursday because of a power outage, said Tammy Bengen, spokeswoman for Ferndale School District. Power has been restored to the school and it should be open Friday, provided the power doesn't go out again, she said.

High winds also damaged the Lummi Island ferry dock, resulting in limited hours of operation and weight restrictions.

As of Thursday morning, some parts of Bellingham still had fallen trees or other debris partially blocking parts of a roadway, but no roads were closed, Bedlington said.

Elsewhere in the county, more than 20 roads were reported closed or blocked as of 1:30 p.m. Thursday, according to Whatcom County Public Works. Roads not blocked had shoulder or lane erosion, or water or debris on the roadway, county officials reported.

Closed roads included Bylsma Road, Marine Drive at Ferndale Road, and Hemmi Road east of Hannegan Road. Blocked roads included McLeod Road, Emerald Lake Way and Flynn Road.

In downtown Bellingham, the strong winds broke an inner metal arm of the rotating sculpture next to the Whatcom Transportation Authority terminal. The artist, Tony Howe, plans to remove the large globe from the sculpture's outer ring and store it at the agency's shop while he repairs the broken piece at his studio on Orcas Island.

The sculpture might be repaired and re-installed in perhaps a week or two, said WTA spokeswoman Maureen McCarthy. The warranty on the sculpture is still in force, so the artist will cover the cost of repairs, she said.

COUNTY ROAD CLOSURES

For an updated list of road closures and roads with restricted access in rural Whatcom County, click here.