Here’s why residents lost power Tuesday afternoon near Olympia Regional Airport
Power had largely been restored to all Puget Sound Energy customers in Thurston County by Tuesday morning after a weekend of wind and rain had knocked out power to thousands.
But about noon Tuesday hundreds of residents near Olympia Regional Airport once again found themselves in the dark, according to PSE data, which showed about 3,300 customers had lost power.
Why?
Although the worst of the storm was over, it had damaged some cables near the airport that ultimately failed, said PSE spokesman Gerald Tracy on Wednesday. And those cables needed to be replaced, he said.
That work was finally completed about 8 p.m. Tuesday, he said.
Wednesday’s power outage numbers revealed a much improved situation.
PSE data, as of about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, showed that throughout its entire service area there were 21 active outages, affecting about 400 customers.
In Thurston County, four customers were without power, according to Find Energy data.
Any remaining outages are likely not tied to the weekend storm, Tracy said.
Another soggy weekend is in the forecast, although winds are not expected to be nearly as strong, said National Weather Service forecaster Samantha Borth.
This story was originally published October 29, 2025 at 3:42 PM.
