De Tray’s resident Odin Vargas said that he, his wife and their 2-year-old son have been forced to stay with his mother in Centralia to stay warm. Vargas said he’s making a daily drive into Olympia for his job with a janitorial company.
“The gas is expensive driving back and forth from Centralia,” he said.
He added that he keeps calling PSE to check on the status of when power will be restored, but “they say they don’t have the time. They have to wait until they can fix it.”
A PSE spokeswoman said that as of 4 p.m. Monday, there were still about 16,000 Thurston County customers without power after a three-day extreme weather event – a snowstorm, then an ice storm, followed by heavy winds – hammered South Puget Sound. That’s down from about 30,000 Thurston County customers without power as of Sunday evening.
But nearly halving the number of those without power in one day is little solace for those who are still waiting for their cold homes to warm up. Especially when, as is the case with those at De Tray’s Mobile Home Park, they can see neighbors across the street with electricity.
Sandie Maki, 67, said the power at her mobile home has been out since Thursday. “I just threw out $250 worth of food,” she said. She said she bundles up every night in two pairs of socks, slippers, extra sweaters, coats and a hat, then wraps herself in two thermal blankets to stay warm.
“My neighbor gave me water so I can do dishes,” she added.
The majority of the 100 or so mobile homes in the park have had electricity restored since the power went out about 3 p.m. Thursday, Maki said.
The last time someone from PSE was out to look at the downed wires near her home, Maki said, was Sunday afternoon. But when the truck drove off without doing any work, Maki said, “I just sat down and cried.”
“I felt like a jilted lover – ‘Don’t leave me,’” Maki joked.
Others in Thurston County reporting that they were still in the dark included residents on Delphi Road in Tumwater near Olympia High School, and in parts of Lacey.
Denise Merz said she and her family have been without power at their home off Delphi Road since Thursday morning, and she’s starting to miss not being able to shower. She said she and her husband and kids can keep warm with a generator and wood stove, but the family has been eating out a lot over the past few days.
“It costs us much more than eating at home would cost,” she said.
PSE spokesman Roger Thompson said the utility is making a massive push in Thurston County over the next 24 hours in an effort to restore most customers’ power by today. He said that on Monday, more than 400 lineman were working in Thurston County, and that today the number will grow by 120 or 130.
“In addition we’ve got almost 100 tree cutters,” to assist the line crews with chain saws, he said.
“We’re hitting it with everything we’ve got,” he said. “I know it’s an issue when you’re sitting in the dark this long. You can’t help but be frustrated.”
PSE spokeswoman Terri-Ann Betancourt added that just because a utility worker drives by and doesn’t immediately start work, that doesn’t mean that they’re forgotten about a neighborhood or are blowing off a customer without power. She added that the process may seem tedious, but lineman are now going “house by house,” to fix the last remaining power lines that may be affecting smaller numbers of customers, maybe 10, five, or even three homes in a neighborhood.
“We’re working literally around the clock,” she said.
Betancourt said that the last few remaining homes without power in Thurston County will probably not have electricity until Wednesday.
Jeremy Pawloski: 360-754-5445
jpawloski@theolympian.com
