Multiple properties were damaged as the power was knocked out for thousands of people in Thurston and Lewis counties this past weekend.
Puget Sound Energy (PSE) announced 14,500 customers lost power starting Friday night, according to reporting by The Olympian.
“Throughout the county our crews found trees on wires, fallen trees blocking roads and branches into our lines,” PSE Spokesman Andrew Padula said.
Padula added that areas southwest of Tumwater seemed to bear the brunt of the storm as four power poles got knocked down over a third of a mile stretch, blocking the road and blowing a transformer out.
Around 1,400 Thurston County residents remained without power as of Saturday night and PSE expected to have repairs completed and power restored to all residents by 6 a.m. Monday morning.
Outages were also reported on the Lewis County Public Utilities District Facebook page. The largest outages were seen in the Packwood area, according to Daniel Hargrove, Lewis County PUD public information officer.
“Packwood seemed to get the worst of it. For the trees, the soggy ground from the rain combined with the wind created brutal conditions,” Hargrove said.
He said at the storm’s peak 9,721 customers had lost power throughout Lewis County at around 1 a.m. on Saturday. As of 10:20 p.m. on Sunday night, all known major outages had been restored.
In Centralia, outages started Friday night, according to Centralia City Light General Manager M.L. Norton.
“The outages that Centralia City Light experienced beginning Friday night around 11:20 p.m. were caused by trees falling into Centralia City Light’s lines. The outages were scattered and did not affect more than 75 customers at a time,” Norton said in an email.
All power was restored in Centralia as of 6:45 a.m. on Saturday and Norton stated that no further outages have been reported.
While residents may still be recovering from this weekend, another storm was forecast to hit Monday, bringing more wind to Western Washington. The National Weather Service (NWS) in Seattle announced it expects colder temperatures to move into the area this week starting with the storm Monday night.
The early winter storm was fueled by strong Fraser River outflow winds coming down from Canada, according to the weather service. Following Monday’s storm, winds are predicted to die down and the weather forecast is dry throughout the week, but it will remain cold with highs in the lower 40s and lows below freezing, according to the NWS.
While some precipitation may occur, it’s not anticipated to be heavy, but a rain and snow mix might be seen and light overnight snowfall could happen in some areas.
The snowy weather was forecast for Monday night, with a rain and snow mixture expected at elevations between 500 and 1,500 feet in the Cascade foothills.
Snow was anticipated at elevations above 1,500 feet in western Whatcom County and lower elevations in the northern Olympic Peninsula, the San Juan Islands and the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
