PORT ANGELES — Two windstorms that swept across Clallam County in December with 70-mph gusts caused an estimated $3 million in damage to public facilities and private homes and businesses, county emergency coordinators said Tuesday.
It also caused the first countywide electric outage since at least the early 1980s, and there are no records of complete outages before then, John Purvis, Clallam County Public Utility District assistant general manager, said Tuesday.
Most of the damage occurred in Port Angeles and the West End, Purvis said.
In its application submitted Monday for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) relief, Clallam County officials laid out $2 million in storm-related public infrastructure and labor expenditures compiled for state emergency management officials, Emergency Management Coordinator Jamye Wisecup said Tuesday.
FEMA would cover 75 percent of uninsured expenditures, Wisecup said.
The partial federal shutdown is not affecting the FEMA disaster relief fund, according to the Washington Post, although some employees are furloughed and others are working without pay.
Nearly $1 million in damage has been incurred by private homeowners and businesses, Emergency Management Coordinator Anne Chastain said Tuesday.
Emergency management officials said most of the wind damage was from roofs being torn off, such as the top of the William R. Fairchild International Airport hangar that the Port of Port Angeles had to repair for more than $100,000.
Damage to public facilities were incurred between Dec. 14-25 by Clallam County Public Utility District, $877,000; the city of Port Angeles, $589,000; Clallam County, $269,000; Port of Port Angeles, $131,000; Port Angeles School District, $102,000; Fire District 4 in Joyce, $12,500; city of Sequim, $9,975; and Crescent School District, $300.
“If this is approved, it will be the largest single FEMA disaster that we’ve had,” Purvis told PUD commissioners Monday who included Jim Waddell, attending his first PUD meeting after defeating 33-year incumbent Ted Simpson in the Nov. 6 general election.
For the PUD, “a substantial majority” of the cost is associated with labor, Purvis said Tuesday.
Purvis said there were 25 broken distribution and transmission poles, 38 downed distribution transformers, 12 miles of downed wire and 270 PUD trouble points.
PUD’s total is likely to increase because repairs were still being made, he added.
Another $900,000 in storm damage suffered by 70 homeowners and seven businesses has been tallied so far by Anne Chastain, county Emergency Management coordinator, she said Tuesday.
Chastain said that total could reach $1 million after another approximately $100,000 in damages is submitted, as expected, by Taqueria Santa Ana restaurant in Forks.
Whether that is eligible for FEMA assistance “is totally up in the air,” she said.
Wisecup said the uninsured portions of expenditures from private homeowners and businesses may be eligible for FEMA aid if Gov. Jay Inslee accepts the disaster-relief applications of storm-ravaged counties.
The state must reach $10.9 million in public agency disaster costs statewide to qualify for FEMA aid, and will receive it if the state’s applications is approved by President Donald Trump.
Purvis predicted FEMA aid would not be distributed until 2020.
Wisecup said the approval process also could take longer depending on how long the ongoing federal shutdown lasts.
Jefferson County Public Utility District had 6,000 out of 19,000 customers who were without power after the second storm began Dec. 20, with power restored to all customers by 10 p.m. Dec. 21.
“That storm was difficult because we had about 60 outage incidents,” Jefferson PUD spokesman Will O’Donnell said Tuesday.
Jefferson PUD has listed $256,000 in storm-related costs for FEMA aid, O’Donnell said.
The storms occurred in quick succession and are being considered as one storm event, Wisecup and Purvis said.
Purvis told Clallam PUD commissioners at their meeting Monday that together they constituted among the worst natural disasters in the PUD’s 78-year history.
“The takeaways, we did do more work in that interval of time than we ever have before,” Purvis said.
All 27,000 residential and business customers — 33,000 total meters — were without power at the height of the outage.
In a storm summary Purvis presented to the Clallam PUD board, Purvis said the complete countywide outage lasted from 2:15 p.m Dec. 14., when the Bonneville Power Administration’s 230 KV line opened at Fairmount west of Port Angeles, until 10 p.m. Dec. 14, when BPA restored power to Sequim and Port Angeles — but still left 5,000 customers without power.
BPA provides the PUD with all of its electric power.
Most of the damage in the first storm was in the Port Angeles area.
All but a few customers had power by Dec. 19, but a second storm Dec. 20 mostly hit the Forks-Sekiu-Neah Bay area at 7:45 a.m. Dec. 20 when trees downed a BPA line between Silverado and Sappho.
Road closures and restrictions on U.S. Highway 101 and state Highways 112 and 113 delayed responses by BPA and PUD crews until that afternoon, Purvis said.
Power was restored to Sekiu and Clallam Bay by 1:14 a.m. Dec. 21 and to Neah Bay, west of Sekiu and Forks, in that order, on Dec. 22 by 5:02 p.m.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
Jim Waddell attended his first meeting as a Clallam County PUD commissioner Monday, replacing 33-year incumbent Ted Simpson, whom Waddell defeated in the Nov. 6 election. (Paul Gottlieb/Peninsula Daily News)
