Electrical power was restored to all Clallam County residents and most Jefferson customers Tuesday after a sudden windstorm hit the night before.
The heavy winds, not expected in such ferocity by the National Weather Service, knocked out electricity to about 8,200 customers in Clallam County.
In Port Angeles, the last outage was repaired at about 6:15 a.m. Tuesday, said Glenn Cutler, city public works and utilities director. About 2,200 customers lost power in the city, he said.
Power outages outside of Port Angeles were concentrated in East Clallam County, said Clallam County Public Utility District spokesman Mike Howe.
About 6,000 PUD customers lost power, he said. Electricity service was restored to everyone by about 11 a.m. Tuesday
Puget Sound Energy estimated that roughly 6,000 of its customers in East Jefferson County were without power Monday night.
More than 200,000 electrical customers lost power statewide, The Associated Press reported.
PSE’s website [ http://sam.pse.com ] displayed no outages in Jefferson County as of 4:30 p.m. Tuesday but Megan Fitzpatrick, PSE spokeswoman, said there may still have been scattered outages.
Fitzpatrick said all that all those without power in Jefferson County, if any remained, should have service by today.
Chris Burke, a Weather Service meteorologist, said sustained winds had been only forecast to reach about 30 mph Monday night.
Instead, they easily exceeded 40 mph at weather stations in Port Angeles and at Point Wilson near Port Townsend, with gusts at both reaching at least 60 mph.
“It was definitely stronger than anticipated,” Burke said.
The low pressure system responsible for the storm turned out to be “deeper” than expected, he said, causing greater pressure gradients, leading to stronger winds.
For Clallam County road crews, Monday night and Tuesday morning turned out to be “relatively quiet” despite the storm, said Mary Peterson, office manager for the county Road Division.
The office received several calls regarding downed trees, but most of them had been pushed to the side by the time the crews arrived, she said.
The state Department of Transportation cleared trees that were blocking U.S. Highway 101 near the Bogachiel River bridge south of Forks on Monday night.
In Jefferson County, crews had to clear 11 roads of fallen trees, said county Road Superintendent Paul Walters.
All roads were open by Tuesday evening, he said.
Walters said wind damage occurred mostly in northeast Jefferson County.
Winds were calm in Quilcene, according to the weather service.
Walters said Tuesday it will take “a couple days” to clean up all of the debris from county roads.
PSE said that 90,000 of its customers within the 11 counties that it serves lost power in the wind storm, and told KIRO-TV that less than 30,000 customers were without power as of Tuesday evening.
Tacoma Power reported 54,000 outages. Snohomish County PUD said it had 20,000 and Seattle City Light had 17,000.
High winds also hit parts of Eastern Washington, and Avista reported outages Tuesday in the Spokane area.
The National Weather Service said the breezy weather would continue through today in Western Washington.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
