More than 40,000 people without power in Thurston County, crews working on transmission lines

More than 40,000 people are without power in Thurston County.

As of 7 p.m. Friday, there are 40,562 people without power in western Washington, with the majority of those outages in Thurston County, as shown on Puget Sound Energy’s (PSE) outage map. That number is down from 50,000 earlier Friday.

“A majority of these outages, can’t put a percentage number on it, but a lot of them are in that Thurston County area, specifically south of Olympia,” Gerald Tracy, spokesperson for PSE, told KIRO Newsradio.

Tracy confirmed the outages are weather-related.

“We had this storm come in today, and our meteorologist actually pegged this storm about a week and a half ago as something to watch for,” he said. “But we just entered fall. Summer is done. Trees are still full of leaves. We’ve definitely seen some of them fall, but now we’re starting to see trees or branches are heavier, got these strong winds and the rain coming in for the first time in a little while.”

Earlier Friday, I-5 was closed in Thurston County due to downed trees and power lines.

‘We have multiple large outages’: Crews work to restore power in Thurston County

PSE stated the estimated restoration time is to be determined, but Tracy noted crews are actively working on restoring power.

“Every outage is different. What I do know is that we have multiple large outages, and a lot of them are transmission, distribution, and substations,” Tracy said. “And when you have all of those down, you really got to start with the stuff that’s getting the power to the substations first.

“So right now customers may not see as many crews as they would like in the neighborhoods where they live, but that’s not because they’re not doing the job,” he continued. “They’re out working on the transmission lines because if we can’t get the power to the substations, then we’re not going to be able to get the power back into the homes first. So really working on those.”

PSE prepares for weekend storms

Crews are currently assessing damage and ordering items they will need when the storm is gone. This storm should be the worst of it for today, but crews are gearing up just in case, according to Tracy.

“We want to make sure we’re overprepared, not underprepared, in situations like this,” he said. “So just ensuring that we have storm bases already starting to open today. Crews are going to be doing some things ahead of time. We’re also delaying or canceling any jobs that we’re able to that were planned for the weekend, specifically in Thurston County or any areas affected by storms, just to make sure that all the people are available.”

Tracy also wanted to remind people that Washington is in storm season and to have emergency kits prepared.

This is a developing story, check back for updates.

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