8,000 lose power in Thurston County as winds topple trees, power lines
South Sound dodged the worst of this week’s weather, which brought heavy snow to the Olympic and Kitsap peninsulas and areas north of Seattle. But as temperatures in the area rose Wednesday evening, so did wind speeds, causing trees to fall and take power lines down with them.
The result: power outages for thousands in Thurston County.
Peak wind speeds from the south Wednesday night in Olympia reached 38 miles per hour around 10 p.m., according to the National Weather Service. The winds also warmed things up, pushing temperatures into the upper 30s and lower 40s after a few days that hovered around freezing.
Wind speeds dropped quickly, hitting about 16 miles per hour before midnight and calming completely before sunrise. But overnight, conditions were ripe for trees to fall.
Thurston County 911 dispatch told The Olympian it received six calls reporting wires down between 7:45 p.m. and 11:35 p.m. Wednesday. On its website, Puget Sound Energy counts the Olympia area among the hardest hit by high winds. Since Monday, an alert reads, the company has restored power to more than 75,000 customers in its service area.
About 8,000 PSE customers lost power in Thurston County Wednesday night, spokesperson Andrew Padula told The Olympian, and 370 or so were still without power Thursday morning.
The two biggest outages affected about 3,500 people total:
- Around 8 p.m. Wednesday, power went out for over 1,100 customers in southwest Olympia due to a tree limb on a power line, Padula said. That outage was resolved about 9 p.m.
- At about the same time, 2,400 customers lost power when a tree fell into power lines on the 4400 block of Meridian Avenue Northeast on the bluff above the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. Power wasn’t back on until about 1:40 a.m.
Olympia Fire Department Battalion Chief JD Young said the department responded to a tree that brought down a wire in a residential area on Olympia’s west side. Last night’s conditions created a “perfect storm” of sorts, he told The Olympian.
“It takes less (force) for trees to come down when the soil is moist from all the rain and snow ... than when the soil is dry,” Young said.
After temperatures dip to near-freezing Thursday night, the National Weather Service forecasts rain and snow showers Friday, then rain into the weekend while temperatures warm back up to around 45 degrees by Saturday. Winds are expected to be relatively calm until overnight Friday, when they could reach 15 to 20 miles per hour with gusts up to 25 miles per hour.
Consistent with recent days, NWS says the current forecast is rapidly changing.
Chief Young says to be aware of the trees in your area: If a tree is leaning on a power line, he advises calling PSE. And if you see any wires hanging mid-air or on the ground, call 911 and don’t approach the wire, even if you think it may not be live.
This story was originally published January 16, 2020 at 9:06 AM.
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