Thousands without power, including in Thurston County, after windstorm blasts region
An overnight windstorm Tuesday blasted the region, producing power outages throughout Western Washington, including in Thurston County, according to Puget Sound Energy.
About 15,000 PSE customers were without power at 9 a.m. Tuesday, according to the utility’s outage map. The map also shows scattered outages in Olympia, west Olympia and in the county. Most of those outages are in the Tacoma and Seattle areas, according to the map.
More than 100,000 PSE customers were without power at the start of the storm Monday night, but that number had been whittled to 27,000 as of 6 a.m. Tuesday, according to PSE.
Two Thurston County school districts announced power-related school closures: Black Lake Elementary in Tumwater and Griffin School District closed.
“Customers in south King County, Pierce County and Thurston County were most severely affected by the winds overnight,” PSE officials said in an update about the storm.
Crews worked overnight to assess damage, make repairs to equipment and restore power to customers, the PSE officials said, adding that its Emergency Coordination Center and local storm bases are open to coordinate outage restoration efforts.
“Crews will be working around the clock as conditions allow until power is restored to all impacted customers,” the officials said.
The National Weather Service issued a wind advisory for the Thurston County area Monday night that is in effect until 10 p.m. Tuesday.
The windstorm could produce sustained southwest winds of 35 to 40 miles per hour with gusts up to 60 mph, according to NWS.
However, a check of wind speeds recorded at Olympia Regional Airport show that winds have so far not been as strong. Sustained wind speeds of between 15 and 20 mph have been recorded at the airport, with gusts in the 20-30 mph range.
A gust of 35 miles per hour was recorded at the airport at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.
The weather forecast for the remainder of the week calls for a rain/snow mix. Overnight temperatures are expected to fall below freezing Thursday night and Friday night.
Friday’s daytime high is forecast to be a chilly 34 degrees.
