Strong winds knock out power to thousands during Washington state storm
Strong, gusty winds toppled trees and branches as a storm struck Whatcom County at midday Tuesday, Oct. 13, knocking out electricity to thousands of residents and scattering leaves, branches and other debris over roadways.
More than 11,000 Puget Sound Energy customers were without power about 2:30 p.m., as winds gusted above 40 mph across western Whatcom County, the utility showed at its online outage map.
A total of .39 inches of rain fell Tuesday, bringing the October monthly total to more than half the normal monthly total of 3.68 inches.
At least one person was hurt in the storm, a Western Washington University maintenance worker who was hit by a falling tree, said WWU spokesman Paul Cocke.
Cocke said the injured person, who wasn’t identified, was taken by ambulance to St. Joseph hospital. The person’s condition was unknown.
PSE spokeswoman Janet Kim told The Bellingham Herald in an email that most of the outages were caused by tree limbs, downed wires and utility poles.
“A tree limb through a transmission line is what caused the substation outage along Lake Whatcom,” affecting the largest amount of customers in the county, Kim said.
The strongest winds were seen in northwest Whatcom County, according to National Weather Service measurements:
▪ 64 mph at Sandy Point Shores.
▪ 50 mph near Lynden.
▪ 40 mph at Bellingham International Airport.
Hardest-hit areas in terms of power outages were those exposed to western and southern winds, from Blaine to the Alger area south of Bellingham.
Fallen trees were reported blocking Lake Whatcom Boulevard, Cain Lake Road and Park Road south of Sudden Valley.
Police and firefighters were kept busy with the weather-related alarms, according to emergency radio dispatches.
Blustery conditions were expected to last through Tuesday night, said John Gargett, deputy director of the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office Division of Emergency Management.
Much of the Whatcom Falls and Puget neighborhoods were without power until late afternoon.
A large part of south county also lost power, including Geneva, Sudden Valley and the Lake Padden and Lake Samish areas.
Power was restored to most customers in those areas from 9 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, according to the PSE website.
Scattered smaller outages were reported across northern Whatcom County, from Ferndale to Everson to Glacier.
More than 150,000 PSE customers were without power at some point throughout the day — mostly from the Seattle area south to Puyallup and in Skagit and Whatcom counties.
A wet, blustery storm was predicted, with possibly damaging winds and power outages, by the National Weather Service in Seattle.
A wind advisory was in effect through midnight Tuesday, warning of south-southwest winds at 25-35 mph gusting to 50 mph and a gale warning was in effect for Bellingham Bay and surrounding waters.
This story was originally published October 13, 2020 at 1:02 PM.
