Utilities restore most power outages that impacted thousands in Western Washington

Crews with multiple utilities — including Puget Sound Energy (PSE) and the Snohomish County Public Utility District (Snohomish PUD) — have restored power to tens of thousands of customers after high winds once again blasted Western Washington.

As of 5 a.m. Monday, just 427 homes and businesses in Washington remained impacted by power outages, the website poweroutage.us confirmed. At 10 a.m. Sunday, 4,355 customers in Washington were affected by power outages,  That is down significantly from the first part of the weekend when at 1:45 p.m. on Saturday, 80,676 Washington customers were impacted. There were nearly 95,000 homes and businesses impacted late Saturday morning.

Looking at specific utilities, PSE saw the largest number of customers affected, according to its outage map. At 5 a.m. Monday, the utility reported 43 “active outages” and 279 customers impacted. On Sunday morning, crews had restored power to all but about 4,000 of those customers. At 7:30 p.m. Saturday, there were more than 28,000 homes and businesses were impacted and more than 60,000 affected earlier in the day Saturday.

There were no reported Snohomish PUD outages as of 5 a.m. Monday. There were about 75 homes and businesses impacted as of Sunday at 10 a.m. On Saturday evening, the utility reported about 1,800 customers were without power. Earlier Saturday, more than 15,000 homes and businesses dealt with outages.

Just before 6 p.m. Saturday, a statement on the Snohomish PUD website explained that its “crews will continue working through the night to restore power.” Since the heaviest winds had subsided, the utility anticipated a majority of remaining outages would be be restored by midnight.

Previously on Saturday, Snohomish PUD reported it had “20 line and service crews working to restore outages caused by high winds knocking trees and branches into wires.” At that time, utility asked area residents to “assume all downed wires are energized everyone should stay at least 30 feet away.”

Seattle City Light reported on its outage map that at 1:45 p.m. Saturday, 923 customers were without power and there were 25 “active events.” By 7:30 p.m., 190 customers were without power and there were 9 “active events.”

By Sunday morning, City Light crews had restored all but two local outages affecting Seattle neighborhoods. That remained the case as of 5 a.m. Monday morning.

Tacoma Public Utilities’ outage map shows 144 outages as of 5 a.m. Monday. However, the utility experienced minimal outages over the weekend, including none as of 7:30 p.m. Saturday. There were three outages and 54 customers impacted as of 1:45 p.m. Saturday. As of 11:30 a.m. Saturday, that utility reported five outages and 26 customers affected. There were eight reported outages and 37 homes and businesses affected at 10:30 a.m.

Winds in Western Washington

The high winds caused trees to topple, knocking down power poles and lines, and crushing at least one vehicle.  Snohomish South County Fire responded around noon Saturday, when a tree fell onto a vehicle in Mountlake Terrace.  Luckily, no one was hurt in that incident.

In Renton, high winds blew over a large tree and a power pole on Benson Road S., leaving the pole and a transformer dangling from power lines onto the middle of the roadway.  That incident forced the closure of Benson Road in both directions, just north of S. 28th St. as crews worked to clear the mess.

The National Weather Service (NWS)’ Weather Prediction Center released information indicating the arrival of the cold, windy, wintry mix early Saturday.

“A Pacific storm system and accompanying strong flow of moisture/Atmospheric River continues inland over the West (Saturday) morning bringing heavy rainfall, mountain snow, and gusty winds to central/northern California and the Pacific Northwest,” the Weather Prediction Center statement reads.

As of 7:30 p.m. Saturday, the wind advisory that had been in effect for much of the Puget Sound region had been removed, the NWS Seattle stated. At 2:40 p.m. on Saturday, most of the region — from Bellingham through Seattle and Tacoma down to Olympia — remained in that advisory,

The NWS Seattle reported some high wind speed numbers on X around 7:35 a.m. Saturday. The wind speed hit more than 50 miles per hour (mph) in Olympia, Bellingham and on Whidbey Island, more than 40 mph in Everett and 33 mph at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (Sea-Tac Airport).

Some peak winds so far this A.M. (mph):

Crystal Mt: 101
Sunrise (Rainier): 85
White Pass: 64
Destruction Is.: 62
Port Townsend: 62
Quillayute: 62
Hoquiam: 62
Smith Is.: 59
Olympia: 56
Bellingham: 55
Whidbey Is.: 53
Hurricane Ridge: 49
Everett: 41
Sea-Tac Airport: 33#wawx

— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) December 14, 2024

The weather service also reported on X Saturday “that strong winds and heightened seas are occurring at the coast. It recommended to area residents and tourists that “this is not the day to get on or near jetties.”

Previous power outages in Washington

Utility crews dealt with power outages for multiple days last month after an “atmospheric bomb” weather event pummeled Western Washington on Tuesday, Nov. 19. There were 578,000 customers impacted as of 5:15 a.m. on Nov. 20. The outage number topped 650,000 during its peak.

Many customers were able to get their power back within 24 hours, but the outages lingered for some for nearly a week, until Monday, Nov. 25.

Most residents in the East Renton Highlands had their power restored that Monday, nearly six full days after a series of massive trees fell in the wooded neighborhoods, some on power lines.

Neighbors told KIRO Newsradio last month the utility company had previously estimated it could restore power by Saturday before pushing back to Sunday, then again to Monday morning and once more before lights ultimately came back on by the late afternoon.

Drew Loika said his power came back around 3:30 p.m. on Nov. 25.

“Power went out Tuesday night,” he said. “I ran over to grandma and grandpa’s house, figured it was going to be a few days. Turned out to be more than a few days. I’ve been camping in the living room.”

This a remains a developing story. Check back for updates.

Contributing: Sam Campbell and Thomas Brock, KIRO Newsradio

Steve Coogan is the lead editor of MyNorthwest. You can read more of his stories here. Follow Steve on X, or email him here.