High winds and fallen trees: Utility crews working to restore power to thousands

UPDATE AS OF 2:30 P.M. SUNDAY:   Crews have put in long hours overnight and through the day Sunday to restore power to thousands of Puget Sound residents.

The latest numbers of power outages as of Sunday afternoon, reported by local utilities:

Puget Sound Energy:  94,000

Snohomish PUD:  1,500

Seattle City Light:  1,300

Tacoma Public Utilities:  10

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Utility crews are out in full force this weekend, working to restore power to more than 150,000 homes and businesses after a powerful windstorm knocked down trees throughout the region.

Many of those trees fell onto power lines, knocking out electricity to customers Saturday night and Sunday morning.

The winds are a bit calmer after the storm blew through.

But a wind advisory is still in effect on SR 16 near the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

So lots of people are surveying damage from the wind, or perhaps chasing their Halloween decorations or garbage cans down the block, after those high winds.

Puget Sound Energy is dealing with the most outages, as more than 138,000 customers are in the dark as of 8:00 a.m. Sunday.

Seattle City Light reports about 5,600 outages, while the Snohomish PUD has about 3,100, and Tacoma Public Utilities has about 350.

Many roads were closed due to fallen trees.

Around 6:00 a.m., crews cleared a fallen tree from U.S. 101 at Green Ridge Drive.

But other problem areas include trees down on U.S. 12 at Anderson Road S.W., SR 702 at Christiansen Muck Rd., SR 702 from SR 7, and Tanwax Boulevard from SR 7.

Traffic is moving smoothly once again on southbound I-5 at just north of the N.E. 50th exit, after a tree fell across two lanes of the freeway near the U-District Saturday night.

The fallen tree landed in the two right lanes of the freeway’s southbound lanes, causing backups for drivers headed into Seattle from the north end around 11:00 p.m.

But the winds are now dying down, and some relief may be in sight.

Forecasters said Sunday will be a wet and rainy day, but the high winds have calmed in most areas.

We are expecting cloudy skies and a lot more rain, with nearly a half inch expected Sunday, with highs near 48 degrees.

Winds will still be breezy, but at just five-to-ten miles an hour.

Sunday night, expect light rain, decreasing clouds, and overnight lows near 43 degrees.

Monday is expected to be partly cloudy and around 55 degrees.