Windstorm knocks out power for thousands of Puget Sound residents
Jan 12, 2021, 7:52 AM | Updated: Jan 13, 2021, 10:34 pm
Downed power lines in Kent. (City of Kent, Twitter)
(City of Kent, Twitter)
The National Weather Service says Thursday is expected to be a “fairly nice day” with morning fog.
But thousands of people across the Puget Sound region are still without power after a strong windstorm ripped across the area late Tuesday night.
Puget Sound Energy Outage Map – 113,000 customers without power
Seattle City Light – 3,800 customers
Snohomish County PUD – 34,000 customers
Tacoma Power – 5,500 customers
Before sunrise on Wednesday, over 300,000 people had lost power, prompting school districts to cancel or delay online classes. Outages were largely driven by high winds and saturated soil, causing heavy trees and branches to come down on power lines. Winds died down by late morning and the sun made an appearance.
Check school closures and delays
Landslide threat
The National Weather Service says it’s been 127 years since Seattle has had so much rain at this point in January. Seattle has already gotten 20% of the rain it normally sees in an entire year — 7.45 inches had fallen as of Wednesday morning.
The NWS said there’s an increased threat of landslides throughout the region until at least Thursday morning. Several landslides have already been reported.
North line Sounder service was canceled “due to the continuing inclement weather and soil conditions” for the rest of the week, according to Sound Transit on Tuesday. There will be buses in place to get Sounder North commuters back and forth this week.
Due to avalanche dangers, the King County Sheriff’s Office asked hikers not to travel in avalanche terrain.
