The lights were expected to be back on by tonight in most Clallam County homes after Western Washington’s strongest storm in more than a decade whistled across the North Olympic Peninsula.
The third fall storm in six weeks knocked out power to large areas of both Clallam County and the city of Port Angeles.
An estimated 12,000 Clallam County Public Utility District customers and nine areas of the city of Port Angeles — including numerous businesses — were without electricity by Friday’s gray dawn.
Clallam PUD serves about 28,500 electricity customers in unincorporated Clallam County as well as the cities of Sequim and Forks.
The district still had about 2,500 customers in the dark early Saturday evening.
Power was predicted to be restored to them by sometime today.
“Probably by Sunday we should have everyone back up,” said PUD Commissioner Hugh Haffner on Saturday.
“This is the third time. How unlucky can we get to have all this happen within a month period?”
The Hood Canal Bridge — which was closed from 8:15 p.m. Thursday to 5:10 a.m. Friday because of high winds that gusted more than 70 mph — received a thorough inspection on Friday said Bill Riley, maintenance and operations superintendent in the state Department of Transportation’s Port Angeles office.
The inspection showed the span weathered the storm “very, very well,” Riley said.
Wind gusts
The Port Angeles weather station at the William R. Fairchild International Airport recorded a wind gust of 52 mph about 12:25 a.m. Friday, before the gusts lost power.
Port Townsend and Diamond Point both recorded gusts of 32 mph.
The strongest wind gust was 59 mph at Quillayute about 12:20 a.m. Friday.
Victoria on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, recorded a wind gust of 76 mph between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. on Friday.
The Race Rocks Lighthouse off the southern tip of Vancouver Island recorded a wind gust of 98 mph between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. on Friday.
Hurricane-force winds start at 74 mph.
Both Clallam and Jefferson counties are included in a 17-county state of emergency proclaimed by Gov. Chris Gregoire on Friday.
