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High winds whip through Puget Sound area

Seattle, Wash. — Winds gusting to 50 miles-per-hour swept across Seattle Saturday night.  They kicked up waves that sprayed over the seawall at Alki Point. Steel signs shuddered in the breeze.  Tree branches swayed. Some of them bent over and broke.

One tree branch landed on a power line and knocked out the lights in almost 4,000 homes in Magnolia and on Queen Anne Hill.

Christine Gray said the lights flickered for a moment in her house. She said, “We knew it was a power surge and I looked on the other hill in Magnolia.  It was totally dark.”

The lights were back on in an hour, but some cable crews lingered in the neighborhood to restore television service to some homes.

Julia Puntarelli was on Bainbridge Island when the wind started blowing trash cans around.  She said, “One of my friends went out to her car to get something and she got hit in the face with a box of chocolates and a couple of Valentine’s Day cards.”

Puntarelli didn't notice the winds on the ferry ride back to Seattle, but she said the waves were crashing pretty hard against the boat.

Tommy Clark and Kristina Hoang were riding the Great Wheel on the waterfront when the wind started to blow.

Clark said, “Our car started to rock back and forth.”  Hoang said, “It was kind of shaky. It was really loud. We could hear, like, the draft flying by.”

Both seemed to agree that the windy weather added even more to the thrill of the amusement ride.