Trees fell into homes, knocked out power in South King County in Sunday storm

People around Puget Sound are just starting the cleanup and the work to restore power that's expected to last for several days after a large windstorm that hit Western Washington on Sunday morning.

Trees smashed into homes, knocked over power lines and blocked roads around the region.

This, after a day spent scrambling to get tarps on damaged roofs.

"About 3:30, heard this bang," said Ric Towes, who lives in Renton's Petrovitsky neighborhood.  "And I thought 'just a limb fell over. Don't worry about it'. "

And with that, Towes went back to sleep. But what he woke up to was a lot worse than he imagined.

"Got up this morning, 6 o'clock," Towes said, "and went back and tell my wife, I said, 'Hey, tree across the driveway. I don't think we're getting out. Plus, it's down across the power lines. So I don't think we have power for a week or two'."

How right he was. Puget Sound Energy told KIRO 7 about this Potelco crew in his Petrovitsky neighborhood hard at work to restore power to this entire area.

But the chainsaws became the day's soundtrack all around this part of Renton including, in Fairwood.

A tree crashed into Bryan Cooke's home office on the second floor where some family members were sleeping.

"And so the first thing, like, I sprinted up there and made sure they were okay," Cooke said, adding they weren't asleep in that room. "No, no, no. It's over there. And it hit almost the center of the house."

It was almost as difficult for those just trying to get around.

"I volunteered to go get coffee because there is no power," said a very frustrated Christina Arnall.

She stood alongside her car four hours into her search for her morning coffee.  She just moved back to the area. And there were so many road closed signs, she got hopelessly turned around.

"And I says, 'you know what?" Arnall said, "-"I'm getting on the 5. They put signs out there where the coffee and stuff is.'  Well, guess what? I failed to bring my purse. I brought my damn dog but I didn't bring my purse."

By then, even she was laughing.

No one was hurt where the trees fell.  Still the people who live there are facing weeks of work.

But just before 5:30 p.m. Sunday, they got their power back.

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• Do you have an investigative story tip? Send us an email at investigate@kiro7.com

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