SEATTLE — A strong Pacific storm system that triggered mud flows in wildfire-scarred areas of California also slammed Washington state and Oregon on Sunday, threatening coastal flooding and causing power outages affecting tens of thousands of people in the Pacific Northwest.
Two people were killed when a tree fell on a vehicle in the Seattle area. Eastside Fire & Rescue responded to the scene of the fatalaties near Preston, about 25 miles east of Seattle.
Wind gusts topping 60 mph also downed trees on Interstate 90 east of Seattle and cut power to more than 150,000 customers in the metro area and around Puget Sound.
The North Olympic Peninsula fared much better with about 1,466 electric customers out of power during the day, but that number was fully restored by Monday, Clallam County PUD reported on its outage map.
In Oregon, about 25,000 customers lost power in Portland and the northwest part of the state, according to The Oregonian.
Forecasters issued severe thunderstorm warnings with damaging winds and hail possible Monday for the Oregon coast and Portland area as well as northwestern Washington.
The weather service urged mariners to stay in port due to heavy seas, with waves up to 25 feet accompanied by 50 mph wind gusts capable of eroding beaches and causing coastal flooding from northern Washington to central Oregon.
Conditions were expected to slowly subside Monday.
