SEQUIM — More than 14,000 Clallam County Public Utility District customers lost electrical power at about 9:30 a.m. Monday, but most were back on the grid by 10:03 a.m., said a Clallam County Public Utility District spokesman.
The outage initially affected all of Sequim and Blyn, said Mike Howe, PUD spokesman.
Power restoration took longer for some pockets of customers, as PUD crews reset and replaced blown fuses, Howe said.
Howe reported that all customers had power restored by 1 p.m.
The power failure was caused by a tree falling on a Bonneville Power Administration transmission line between the Fairmont substation in Discovery Bay and the Happy Valley substation, Howe said.
“About four miles from Fairmont, a logging crew felled a tree that made contact with the lines,” said Bonneville spokesman Doug Johnson.
Johnson said it took 30 minutes to transfer lines to help Clallam PUD restore power to customers.
Howe said that the PUD rerouted power to take its feed from eastern transmission lines to restore power to customers while the Fairmont-Happy Valley lines were out of service.
A PUD crew was dispatched to check the line to see if there were any repairs needed, Johnson said.
“If there’s no more damage, we will be able to be back in business quickly,” he said.
Even if there are repairs needed, power was expected to be restored to the line by the end of Monday, Johnson said.
Electrical power also flickered at 9:30 a.m. in Port Angeles and shut down computers in some homes and businesses.
Puget Sound Energy reported no outages in East Jefferson County.
Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
