PORT ANGELES — Clallam County Public Utilities District officials have seen winter storms come in all shapes and sizes.
The windy rainmakers that hit the area last month were a little different.
“This particular storm was a little unusual in that it came in two or three waves,” said PUD general manager Doug Nass said.
The strongest winds ripped through the Eden Valley area on Nov. 18, felling trees and power poles and lines.
Just west of Port Angeles, a transmission line across a canyon fell into the Elwha River.
Thousands were plunged into the dark that night. Electrical power was restored to most that night or the next day, with much of the West End back on the grid after a Bonneville Power Administration line was repaired, but repairs to the transmission line delayed power restoration for 1,500 Joyce customers.
Crews had to first bulldoze a makeshift road to access the transmission line that fell into the Elwha river for the second time in three years.
Restoring that line in such rugged terrain was a “major accomplishment,” PUD Commissioner Ted Simpson said.
The storms were “very different from the kinds of storms we usually deal with,” Dennis Shaw, Clallam County PUD support services manager, has said.
“Usually, the wind comes and things fall, and we can make an accurate assessment of when we’ll have services back.
“But this time, the wind just did not stop. Even while the crews were repairing, trees continued to fall.”
He said gusts were up to 80 mph to 100 mph, with a gust of 127 mph registered at a home weather station on Mount Pleasant.
Simpson said the worst damage was isolated to pockets of the central and eastern county, while the storm-susceptible West End was spared much of it.
“If you lived in Eden Valley, it was a bad one,” Simpson said.
“There were people in the Sequim area who didn’t experience any wind at all. . . . It wasn’t that bad of a storm from that standpoint that it was not countywide, as it oftentimes is.”
Commissioner Hugh Haffner said it’s common for PUD crews to replace about eight poles in a big snow or wind event. At least 30 poles were snapped in last month’s storm.
“We had a double whammy that week,” Haffner said.
“I can’t say enough about how our crews responded.”
Crews would make repairs, only to return a few days later after another round of damage.
“It was like a war zone in there,” Simpson said.
The six crews worked 40 hours straight, only to witness another wave hit over the weekend.
“Everybody just dug in and did a tremendous job,” Nass said.
At one point during the windstorm, conditions were so dangerous that a crew member took shelter from falling trees and limbs under a truck.
“People don’t realize how dangerous it is,” Haffner said. “Our crews are out there risking life and limb every time they go out.”
