The prevailing winds of last week’s storms blew all predictions on restoring power to customers out the window, said Dennis Shaw, Clallam County Public Utility District support services manager, on Monday.
As of Monday afternoon, about 120 customers remained in the dark, but service was expected to be restored by today, Shaw said at a PUD board meeting.
“This particular storm is very different from the kinds of storms we usually deal with,” he said.
“Usually the wind comes and things fall, and we can make an accurate assessment of when we’ll have services back.
“But this time the wind just did not stop. Even while the crews were repairing, trees continued to fall.”
Initially, about 16,846 Port Angeles and PUD power customers were without power last Wednesday when high winds began.
Waterworks operations threatened
Cindy Kelly, who manages the Dry Creek Water Coalition, and Connie Beauvais, who manages the Crescent Water Association, attended Monday’s PUD commissioners’ meeting and spoke during the public comment period about delayed power restoration to their respective waterworks.
“I really need to be prioritized for the restoration of my power,” said Beauvais.
“This really very nearly could have created a health hazard.”
Kelly said the PUD and other utilities needed to communicate more closely.
“Really, to me, this is all about working together to get things done in the most efficient way,” Kelly said.
She also made note of plans for a Dec. 10 meeting of county utility services to plan how to work together.
Beauvais said she understood the complications with restoring power.
“I understand, I do,” she said.
“And you guys restore to population centers, but what you have to understand is that even if all these people aren’t without power, we serve 2,300 people.
“If we had gone much longer without power, they might all have been out of water.”
Shaw said he would look into how power could have been more efficiently restored.
He added that conditions were difficult for the six crews which worked inordinate hours to restore power as quickly as possible.
“There was one crew that when the dispatcher checked on them and asked where they were, they replied that they were under their truck,” Shaw said.
“The only safe place they could find [from falling tree debris] was under their vehicle.”
He said at its worst, the storm produced winds at 127 mph, clocked at a home weather station on Mount Pleasant.
“We had 80 mile-per-hour gusts, 100 mile-per-hour gusts — it was really astounding,” Shaw said.
“There are roads that looking down, all you saw was trees crisscrossing through the road.”
He said that crews had also worked hard to take out trees that posed a danger.
“There was one crew working up on Palo Alto Road that had noticed one tree was not looking very good,” he said.
“They stopped for lunch, and when they came back that tree was down through the line.
“The scary part is that it fell right where they had been working.”
Shaw said more than 30 power poles fell or were snapped — about five times the average winter storm for the agency that provides power to all of Clallam County except in the Port Angeles city limit.
The six PUD crews worked 40 hours straight, took an eight-hour break, worked 16 hours, took another eight-hour break, and then worked another 40 hours straight, Shaw said.
“They really did an impressive job,” he said.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
