More than 50,000 remain without power across western WA after series of storms
Dec 18, 2025, 6:30 AM | Updated: 10:58 am
A photo of a vehicle attempting to drive over a downed utility pole. (Photo courtesy of Snohomish County PUD)
(Photo courtesy of Snohomish County PUD)
Rough winds hit western Washington Tuesday night, leaving more than 50,000 people still without power, as of Thursday morning.
Governor Bob Ferguson reported wind gusts reached 60 mph. The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a wind advisory for western Washington from 4 p.m. Tuesday to 6 a.m. Wednesday.
“Gusty winds could blow around unsecured objects,” NWS stated. “Tree limbs could be blown down, and a few power outages may result.”
As of 11 a.m. Thursday, 51,566 people are without power in Washington, according to poweroutage.com.
Puget Sound Energy crews work day and night to restore power
Puget Sound Energy (PSE) crews, with reinforcements from other utilities and states, are working around the clock to restore power to customers impacted by the overnight windstorm.
According to PSE spokesperson Gerald Tracy, the utility expects to have most customers back online by Thursday.
However, restoration efforts on Whidbey Island could take a couple of days.
“We’ve had to fly helicopters over there to try to find out where the damage is, to even assess it, and then also get crews over to the island,” Tracy said.
Restoration efforts in the Duvall and Skykomish areas are being slowed by floodwaters.
“It’s like a conglomerate of all kinds of storms,” Tracy said. “We have all the flooding, and as those floodwaters recede, we’re going to see damage that we didn’t know about. Then we had winds reaching 100 mph in some parts of Washington state.”
Thousands without power in Pierce County
In Pierce County, there are 11,309 people without power.
Orting, South Prairie, and Dupont areas are seeing the majority of those outages, with the cause still under investigation, as reported by PSE.
“We understand how hard it is to be without power and that you are depending on us,” PSE said. “We encourage our customers to take steps now to be without power.”
PSE is reporting 33,257 customers are without power across 406 outages.
More than 600 people are without power via Tacoma Public Utilities.
Snohomish County outages
According to Snohomish PUD, 13,268 customers are without power.
Crews fix outages in North Seattle
In Seattle, outages have gone from nearly 2,000 customers without power to only 242 customers across two outages, as shown on Seattle City Light’s outage map. Officials said the outages were due to equipment failure.
Poweroutage.com is reporting that 1,494 people do not have power throughout King County.
Officials urge drivers to avoid driving over downed power lines, poles
The Snohomish County PUD encouraged drivers not to go around cones or road signs indicating a closure. Additionally, the department noted that it is unsafe to drive around downed utility poles or power lines.
A specific instance occurred on Wednesday that involved a vehicle crashing into and getting stuck on a utility pole.
Snohomish PUD also noted that driving through road closure zones can delay restoration efforts, as the department now has to remove the vehicle from the scene.
Please do not go around cones or road closed signs. It is not safe to drive around downed poles and power lines. Unfortunately, this driver learned this lesson the hard way š¬
This can also delay restoration efforts further while we safely remove the vehicle from the area. pic.twitter.com/HdRAB0b98U
ā Snohomish County PUD (@SnoPUD) December 17, 2025
This is a developing story, check back for updates.
Contributing: Frank Sumrall, and Jason Sutich, MyNorthwest; Frank Lenzi, KIRO Newsradio
Follow Julia Dallas onĀ X. Read her stories here. Submit news tips here.
Follow @http://twitter.com/Mynorthwest
