All was bright again on the North Olympic Peninsula on Wednesday afternoon after electrical power outages plagued both counties Tuesday.
Except for three outages in Clallam County, all public utility customers had regained power by about 11 a.m. Wednesday after more than 5,400 suffered in the cold and the dark overnight on the West End.
Power was restored to the West End customers at a little after 11 a.m. Wednesday, said Nicole Clark, Clallam PUD spokesperson, who had reported more than 6,100 customers out at the peak at about 4 p.m. Tuesday.
Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) crews removed three trees from various sections of its line west of Port Angeles to get the power back on for Forks, La Push, Clallam Bay, Neah Bay and other west county areas, Clark said.
Tests of the BPA line were done after each tree was removed and repairs made. Tests were done at about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, 12:30 a.m. Wednesday and 10 a.m. before the line finally held.
Other areas had power restored by about midnight, she said.
BPA crews come from Olympia before they can begin to trace the line, Clark said.
“That’s why it’s important for us to find the location (of the problem) if possible,” she said.
After a peak of 1,357 outages sometime after 7:30 p.m. Tuesday night, all Jefferson County Public Utility District customers regained electricity by about 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, said Will O’Donnell, Jefferson County PUD spokesperson.
Outages were all over, O’Donnell said — in Port Townsend, Quilcene, Discovery Bay, Gardiner. Falling trees or branches caused the outages, he said.
“It was a lot of separate incidents,” he said. “Crews worked through the night.”
Sunshine greeted Peninsula residents Wednesday morning after winds blustering ahead of a front moving into an already soggy region.
Trees came down easily after rains had saturated the ground, said meteorologist Dana Felton at the Seattle office of the National Weather Service on Tuesday evening.
The front came through overnight, dropping more rain on an area that was experiencing landslides and flooding in several areas of the region.
But Wednesday morning, skies were clear.
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Executive Editor Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3530 or at lleach@peninsuladailynews.com.
