SEQUIM — A power outage fueled by unexpected gusty winds to the east blacked out the entire city about 9:45 tonight, forcing cancellation of a City Council budget hearing until next Monday.
The council rescheduled the hearing to 6 p.m. Dec. 6.
A Clallam County Public Utility District representative said that scattered outages in the Diamond Point area started occurring around 8 p.m., when gusty winds whipped up across the Miller and Quimper peninsulas.
Then the Happy Valley electrical station — through which electricity goes to Sequim — went out around 9:45, knocking out five substations around the city.
Two of the substations — serving downtown and an area just north of downtown — were back on around 11 p.m., and the remainder were expected to be restored in short order, the PUD representative said.
A tree fell across the eastbound lane of U.S. Highway 101 near Milepost 271 in Blyn around 9 p.m. A Department of Transportation spokesperson said the tree was cleared about 10:20 p.m. and two-way traffic on the highway had been restored.
One Miller Peninsula weather observation station reported a gust of 39 mph at 8:04 p.m. before it was knocked out because of the power outage. No readings at Diamond Point were available.
A top gust of 44 mph was recorded about 10 p.m. at the observation station at Point Wilson, near Port Townsend. Winds peaked at 33 mph in the 10 p.m. hour at Keystone Harbor across from Port Townsend on Whidbey Island.
Stations in the Sequim and Port Angeles areas registered only slight breezes of less than 10 mph.
