‘Trees were falling like toothpicks’: Washington residents recoup after storm

An “atmospheric bomb” swept through Western Washington Tuesday night, taking out power lines, snapping trees and leaving hundreds of thousands without power. According to police, at least two people have been reported dead due to falling trees.

KIRO Newsradio spoke to people around the state Wednesday who are surveying the damage and waiting for power to be restored.

On “Seattle’s Morning News” on KIRO Newsradio, Kathy from Granite Falls called in and said, “Trees were falling like toothpicks.”

“Trees were just falling everywhere, and one fell on a truck, right on the cab of the truck, and the guy, luckily was out trying to move the tree,” she added.

More on the storm: ‘Multiple day outage’ expected as hundreds of thousands have lost power in Western Washington

Tod in Mill Creek told KIRO Newsradio he is still without power.

“We haven’t had power since about, I don’t know, eight o’clock last night or something like that,” he said. “Situation’s good but it’s kind of interesting. Here in Mill Creek, we don’t have power. It’s like a whole quadrant out or something like that.”

Bellevue local on Washington storm: ‘It’s something different’

Brian works in downtown Bellevue and lives in the suburbs. He said people were still going to work Wednesday morning but that the power was out in most places.

“There’s no real trees down, but lots of branches everywhere,” he added. “But I do see people getting up.”

Bridal Trails homeowner Rahul Prasat said this storm was unique.

“I’ve lived here for 20 years,” he told KIRO Newsradio. “We’ve had the snowstorms and everything. I’ve never seen trees like this come down. It’s something different but we’ll probably be without power for a long time but could have been a lot worse so we’re very thankful for that.”

Prasat added the falling trees tore up his neighborhood.

“We had two trees come down across our neighbor’s house, one that went through our neighbor’s garage, one came down on our side and took out part of our garage and landed on our generator,” he said. ” Fortunately, we didn’t lose power.”

Seattle resident hears explosion before losing power

In Seattle, a homeowner told KIRO Newsradio he heard the storm.

“We had one on our street, a very loud explosion, and then saw it light up the whole neighborhood, and then our power went out,” he shared.

Another resident also heard the commotion.

“So I heard it snap, and then as it fell, you could hear all the branches cracking and popping,” she told KIRO Newsradio. “It made quite a loud noise.”

Seattle resident Ella Faildine said her power went out around 6:30 p.m. and didn’t come back on until around 9 a.m. Wednesday morning.

Tracy Meloy of Issaquah felt well-prepared for the storm with dinner prepped and lanterns ready, reported The Associated Press. But then she spent the night listening to wind-whipped debris hit the outside of her home, including a particularly loud “thump” around 9 p.m. On Wednesday morning she ventured outside to survey the damage to her neighborhood.

“Now that I’m standing here in front of the house, I can tell it’s the tree that was across the street,” Meloy said to The AP.

The tree pulled down the power lines in front of her home. Limbs, leaves and other plants were strewn all over the road.

“It looks like a forest floor instead of a street,” she said.

Wow! pic.twitter.com/b6lXj1oOwd

— James L. (@James_KIRORadio) November 20, 2024

Lake Stevens resident Rich Bardue was also surprised by the wreckage.

Lake Stevens man on Washington storm: ‘Never quite seen anything like it’

“Just a heck of a storm last night,” he told KIRO Newsradio. “I mean, I’ve been here for 25 years, and I’ve been spending about the last three, four hours picking up my my yard here. Never quite seen anything like it.”

Another Lake Stevens resident had his truck smashed by a tree.

“It was just a loud snap and a huge crash, my truck and another neighbor’s truck covered in the tree,” Jay Frazier said.

Frazier added that he now has renewed concern over the tall dead trees behind his townhome.

“They could fall on our houses, actually not too long ago, a tree did fall on the roof of my townhome, punctured the attic,” he said.

Related news: Utilities offer advice for power outages as thousands go dark across Puget Sound

PSE: It will take time for power to be restored

Puget Sound Energy Spokesperson Melanie Coon spoke with “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio. She said it will take a while before everyone’s power is restored.

“We have a big challenge ahead of us, and we’re pretty much thinking these, a lot of these outages could be multiple days,” Coon shared.

She said crews assessed a great deal of damage Wednesday morning.

“Just massive devastation,” Coon added.

Now for the cleanup! pic.twitter.com/fP6HAXPj2q

— James L. (@James_KIRORadio) November 20, 2024

She said because the winds blew in from the east, it made it easier to knock down trees.

Cliff Mass: ‘Atmospheric bomb revved up very rapidly,’ has hit Washington

Lead Communications Specialist for Snohomish County PUD Kellie Stickney told KIRO Newsradio that biggest challenge crews are facing is accessing downed power lines because there are so many trees on the road.

“We have entire trees down,” she added. “We have poles down. We have to determine how to get the materials into the site. It could be anywhere from a few minutes switching lines to hours and hours and hours of work.”

Contributing: James Lynch, Katrina Guischard and Aaron Granillo, KIRO Newsradio; The Associated Press

Julia Dallas is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read her stories here. Follow Julia on X here and email her here.

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