Thousands still in dark after overnight windstorm Wednesday

Thousands of customers were still without power after intense overnight winds toppled power lines and trees, causing road closures across Western Washington Wednesday.

As of 9 p.m. Thursday there were approximately 30,000 Puget Sound Energy customers still without power. Power had been restored to more than 405,000 since the beginning of the storm.

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Puget Sound Energy said some customers might have outages for days due to the severity of the impact on the system.

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Roads were closed throughout the region, including on Deception Pass Bridge. State troopers said high winds were a factor in knocking over a truck, causing it to hang partially off the bridge. The driver made it out safely. SR 20 was closed while crews tried to remove the semi. It has since reopened.

A tree came down on a house in the 600 block of South Mason Avenue Tacoma overnight Wednesday, shearing off nearly a quarter of the home. A woman was trapped inside. A Tacoma fire technical rescue team was able to rescue the victim from her bedroom.

In Seattle, East Marginal Way South had closed at Myrtle due to power lines in the road.

Up in the North Sound, I-5 north of Lynnwood was completely shut between 164th Street and 128th Street for about 90 minutes after power lines came down just after 12 a.m. Wednesday.

Several roads in Snohomish County were blocked, including Norman Road in Stanwood and 236th Northeast in Arlington, the sheriff’s office said.

And Snohomish County PUD tweeted at 6 p.m. Thursday that the reason for prolonged outages was due to fallen trees that made it difficult for crews to access the issues.

In Whatcom County, several trees came down at Western Washington University in Bellingham Tuesday night. They caused damage at a residence hall and one person suffered minor injuries.

There were multiple wind gusts over 50 mph in the Seattle area between midnight and 1:15 a.m. Wednesday. Gusts of 70 mph were recorded in Ferndale, and Federal Way saw gusts of 61 mph.

Meteorologist Nick Allard had said Wednesday morning that was officially the wettest start to January in Seattle on record. Combined with high winds, the rainfall contributed to trees toppling by creating saturated ground.

Cox Media Group