PORT ANGELES, Wash. — Crews are working around the clock to restore power to the city of Port Angeles after Friday night's powerful windstorm plunged nearly all of Clallam County into the dark.
It took all day to get thousands of customers back on line. Now, just a few thousand people are still in the dark there.
Port Angeles Mayor Sissi Bruch said late today the water restrictions the city imposed when there was no power have been lifted. That is an indication of just how much progress has been made in getting power back to Clallam County.
But several thousand people are still in the dark like those on West Edgewater Drive.
It was extraordinary. Power knocked out to all of Clallam County, something those who have lived here for years say they have never seen here before.
"There were three points of damage on the Bonneville Power Administration's transmission lines," said Nicole Clark, a spokeswoman for Clallam County PUD.
She says that catastrophic event, along with numerous trees that succumbed to the fierce winds, triggered a cascade of power outages countywide. It even left the local utility she works for without power.
"It was challenging last night because we had to work on our system without having it energized from Bonneville Power Administration," Clark said. "And then we had challenges because there were traffic jams with no stop lights. And we had to have challenges with trying to fuel our vehicles with the gas pumps not working."
Port Angeles Mayor Bruch says the storm damaged buildings, houses and cars.
In the light of this day, it is easy to what came the night before. Trees were heavily damaged in a lot of places. And some of the trees that came down are still down, blocking various roadways.
But the PUD says it is working non-stop so a lot more people are getting their power back.
"So it's getting better," says Clark. "And the crews are focusing here on the west side of Port Angeles from here to Joyce."
In fact, she says at the pace the crews are working, they expect to get everybody back on line Saturday night. That, of course, will be good news for those who have been in the dark since Friday.
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