By Charlie Bermant
Peninsula Daily News
PORT TOWNSEND — Power was fully restored to the Upper Sims Way business district Monday evening, ending a daylong outage that began when a truck snagged a utility line and pulled a snapped power pole about 100 feet down the road.
The 5:30 a.m. incident led to the closing of Sims Way — state Highway 20 — for much of the day as crews fixed power lines and cleaned up the fallen pole and other debris.
Grant Street Elementary School canceled all classes Monday because power could not be restored in time to get school buses running on regular routes.
The school will be back in session today — which is School Picture Day and open house, according to its website at www.ptschools.org.
It all started before dawn Monday when a semi driven by George Roundtree of United Food Industries was southbound after making a delivery at the Port Townsend Co-op.
The top of the truck caught a wire on the 2300 block of Sims Way.
The force of the impact snapped the pole about three feet above the ground.
The truck dragged the pole about 100 feet — knocking down a streetlight along the way — before Roundtree could stop the big rig.
Roundtree was uninjured and was not found to be at fault for the mishap, although the investigation continues, according to East Jefferson Fire-Rescue spokesman Bill Beezley.
Power was out generally south of the Castle Hill area around the accident and was gradually restored through the day.
The Highway 20 Road House, located one block away from where the pole snapped, remained open through the outage and used its generator to serve most of the breakfast menu — aside from toast.
Most of the other businesses on Upper Sims Way were closed, although Union Bank provided limited service at its drive-up window.
Jefferson Healthcare hospital lost power at the time of the mishap, and its generators supported emergency services for about three hours, according to facilities manager Jim Skannes.
At the peak, about 1,900 Puget Sound Energy customers lost power, but only 80 were blacked out by late Monday afternoon.
They were reconnected just before 8 p.m., PSE reported.
The felled pole, which was removed, routed wires between two other poles that are now connected directly.
The Broadstripe communications cable on which the truck snagged was the last wire to be restored.
It required the erection of a new pole to support it midway between the two other poles.
After the incident, local merchants Ken Kelley and Bob Koenig speculated that the snagging occurred because the city raised the level of the road during recent Upper Sims Way landscaping and did not raise the height of the cable.
City Engineer Dave Peterson said that was not possible: The pavement was raised 4 inches and the cable exceed the regulation 13-foot height.
“Trucks have been coming through here since July when we repaved and nothing has happened,” Peterson said.
“It is a mystery how the cable sagged to where it caught on the truck.”
Peterson said the investigation to find the cause would continue.
Monday’s accident was the second uprooted utility pole in Port Townsend.
A pole on Sheridan Avenue was knocked over late Saturday night by an allegedly drunken driver.
In both cases the pole removal and replacement was handled by Potelco of Poulsbo, a PSE contractor.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
