PORT HADLOCK — An estimated 5,000 to 6,000 Jefferson County Public Utility District customers remained without electricity at 3 p.m. today.
Power is expected to be restored to all by Sunday evening, according to present estimates.
Brinnon customers, who are served by Mason County Public Utility District 1, were all back on the grid by this afternoon, said Kristin Masteller, district spokeswoman.
About half of the Jefferson County PUD’s 18,500 customers suffered major outages during Thursday night’s storm, according to General Manager Jim Parker, while up to 70 percent had at least a brief interruption in power.
The Brinnon area suffered sporadic electrical outages throughout the week, especially on Wednesday, with a short outage on Thursday, Mastellar said.
“It’s been extraordinarily windy at the north end of our system,” she said today.
The Jefferson County PUD has three crews out fixing damage today and has recruited two more to carry the extra work load, Parker said.
Expected to be back on the grid by late this evening are Discovery Bay, North Beaver Valley, and the area north and south of the Hood Canal Bridge, according to a map on the PUD website at www.jeffpud.org/.
Expected to be fixed by noon Saturday are repairs needed in Port Ludlow and Port Hadlock.
The area between Discovery Bay to the Jefferson County PUD’s boundary south of Quilcene are expected to be repaired late Saturday night.
Power is expected to be restored to Marrowstone Island, the Coyle Peninsula and the area around the Jefferson County International Airport by Sunday evening.
Small outages also are reported west of Port Ludlow. Power is expected to be restored by Sunday.
The Jefferson County PUD is updating the map, viewable at http://tinyurl.com/PDN-repairs, as repairs occur so all estimates are fluid.
The Mason County PUD 1 website is http://mason-pud1.org/.
Chimacum School District and Port Townsend School District are shut down this morning, including preschool, bus service and sports activities tonight. Quilcene School District is open but canceled bus pickups on Snow Creek Road.
Jefferson County Public Health officials cautioned residents about potential health issues from well water in the wake of muddy runoff from the rains and suggested using bottled water instead.
(See statement in fact box at right.)
The storm seemed to skip lightly over much of the Peninsula — Forks, Port Angeles and Sequim had some rain, winds and a few isolated power outages — but it threw a knockout punch in the east as heavy gusts took down power lines and trees and spewed debris across roadways in Port Townsend and other parts of Jefferson County.
By 8 p.m., thousands of residents were in the dark as utility crews scrambled to restore power. Lights were expected to be back on by this morning in most areas.
Jefferson County Emergency Management sent out this alert at 9:28 p.m. Thursday:
“Widespread power out county-wide. Most locations out overnight at least; PUD says 70% county out now. Don’t travel!”
Then it sent this alert at 10:38 p.m.:
“9-1-1 working again; limit 9-1-1 calls to emergency only due to high call load.”
It sent this earlier alert at 8:49 p.m.:
“Multiple storm-related outages and closures; emergency services overloaded; avoid unnecessary travel.”
Port Angeles had winds gusting to 22 mph, but to the east, Point Wilson in Port Townsend had sustained winds of 36 mph, the National Weather Service said.
“Outages in Gardiner, Throndyke, Indian Island, Marrowstone, Port Townsend and Port Ludlow. We doubled up our crews, but expect hours out [before service is restored],” Jefferson PUD said in a Twitter message Thursday night.
Another Twitter message from the PUD read: “The Coyle area is currently out of power. Expect hours long outages throughout the evening as this powerful storm moves through the region.” Jefferson PUD has about 20,000 electrical customers.
Winds eased late Thursday night; showers and winds were forecast to continue decreasing today, the Weather Service said.
The Hood Canal Bridge closed at 10:53 p.m. because winds were blowing water into the traffic lanes, causing safety issues. The bridge reopened to vehicles at 12:49 a.m.
