CLALLAM BAY — An odd chain-reaction involving utility poles and a log truck left about 1,500 West End customers without power for seven hours Tuesday and a landmark restaurant with a big dent.
Clallam Bay, Sekiu, Pysht and Neah Bay were blacked out at 12:05 p.m. when two power poles tumbled, said Dave Proebstel, a distributions system manager for the Clallam County Public Utility District.
Power was eventually restored to customers at about 7 p.m.
The electricity outage was the direct result of a series of events that produced a badly damaged log truck and a utility pole lying on the roof of Clallam Bay’s landmark Breakwater Inn Restaurant.
No injuries were reported.
Original reports from the incident incorrectly stated that the unloaded log truck had run into a power pole, causing the pole to topple.
“The log truck didn’t hit a pole, as was thought to be the case,” Proebstel said later.
“It appears someone with an excavating device — like a hoe — broke a guywire that was attached to a pole while they were digging.”
Although the pole didn’t fall, the loss of support from the broken guywire caused it to lean, slacking a power line that crossed over state Highway 112 adjacent to the Breakwater Inn.
Truck ‘trips’ on wire
Within a few minutes, the tractor-trailer came rumbling along the highway and snagged the slacked line.
The leaning pole attached to the wire was pulled violently onto the roof of the truck’s cabin, Proebstel said.
At the same time, the main power pole on the other side of the road was pulled onto the roof of the Breakwater Inn.
