Thousands without power in Thurston County following windy rainstorm overnight
Thousands of Puget Sound region residents woke up without power Wednesday following a heavy, overnight wind and rain storm.
As of 2 p.m. Puget Sound Energy reported 134 separate outages, many affecting multiple homes, in Thurston County. That was 146 less than 280 outages reported around 8 a.m.
Across its entire service area, around 315,000 people were without power at 4:30 a.m., according to a news release. By 2 p.m., there were still 1,355 reported outages across the region affecting over 184,000 customers, according to PSE’s Outage Map.
The utility is still assessing damage and does not have an estimate of restoration times, although it could take days for some customers, said PSE spokesman Andrew Padula.
Padula described the storm as a significant event for the utility. Soils saturated by days of rain made trees more prone to toppling.
The peak wind gust in the Olympia area was 47 miles per hour at 11:54 p.m. Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.
“We are moving as quickly and safely as we can,” Padula said.
To coordinate power restoration, the energy provider opened its Emergency Coordination Center and all its local storm bases in the region, the release read.
“Our first step in restoring power is damage assessment: getting a look at what’s been done to the system and determining the extent of repairs that are needed,” the release read. “The process takes time and crews may be delayed, as unsafe weather remains an issue. “
However, the weather is expected to remain dry through Friday, and winds had died down, according to the weather Service. Still, rivers in the area were expected to crest Wednesday afternoon, and could cause some flooding.
Road closures
College Street in Lacey was closed Wednesday morning between Mont Claire, 31st Avenue and 37th Avenue, due to downed trees on the road, according to a tweet by the City of Lacey. The city had to wait on PSE to turn off power in the area before crews could clear the street, according to the tweet.
State Road 510 in Yelm was closed Wednesday due to downed trees and power lines, according to a tweet from the Washington State Department of Transportation.
Many county roads also were closed Wednesday morning due downed trees and power lines, Thurston Public Works tweeted.
The closures in the northern part of the county included Johnson Point Road Northeast, Marvin Road Northeast, 31st Avenue Northeast and Cooper Point Road Northwest, according to a county map of travel impacts. Toward the south and around Littlerock, flooding had closed Delphi Road Southwest, 110th Avenue Southwest, 123rd Avenue Southwest and LaFrance Road Southwest.
Schools
The following school districts were affected by the power outages and weather Wednesday.
- Olympia School District made slight changes to its service at Hansen Elementary School and Marshall Middle School, both of which lost power Wednesday, according to a district spokesperson.
- North Thurston Public Schools may experience interrupted instruction due to power outages, causing some classes to be asynchronous today.
- Tumwater School District said there was no power at Black Lake and Littlerock elementaries. Student testing at Black Lake Elementary was canceled. Live learning may be disrupted.
- Rochester School District was closed due to power outages.
- Yelm Community Schools was experiencing power outages throughout its district and consequently moved to remote learning Wednesday, the district reported. Ridgeline Middle School and Southworth Elementary School lost power, forcing staff at those locations to work from home until power was restored. The district also reported no in-district transportation Wednesday, but specialty routes outside the district were still operating. Students without power will not be marked absent.
- Oakville School District operated two hours late due to weather issues.
This story is developing. Check back for updates.
This story was originally published January 13, 2021 at 8:10 AM.
