PORT ANGELES — Power was restored to all Clallam County Public Utility District customers — “that we know of” — by 6 p.m. Friday, a PUD spokesman said Sunday.
“It’s a lot better now, I can tell you,” said dispatcher Larry Morris.
Morris said the damage wrought by the snowstorm that struck a week earlier was especially troublesome because fallen trees and downed poles cut off individual customers.
It would have been easier to bring back a substation, he said, than the many distribution lines that were snapped, he said.
Complicating the situation was “getting to places, getting the trees out of the way,” Morris said.
“It was time consuming.”
Calls kept coming
Morris said he understood frustrated customers who couldn’t get through to report power outages.
However, Morris — who was on duty when the storm struck — said “that phone didn’t stop ringing for one minute” with reports of downed lines, poles on fire and trees set ablaze when they fell into wires.
He explained that crews placed a priority on situations that threatened customers’ safety, then on lines that served sewer and water systems — the latter in case of fires.
It didn’t help that the storm hit during the Thanksgiving weekend, when many crew members were out of town.
Many of them cut their celebrations short, however, Morris said.
“More and more came in as the evening wore on,” he said.
City crews were vital
Morris also expressed gratitude to crews who came from Franklin, Benton and Chelan counties, plus the city of Port Angeles.
“They were so helpful to us,” he said about the city workers.
He hoped crew members can take a breather — a deep breather — before the weather attacks the power network again.
“Physically, they are beat,” he said. “Mentally, I could just tell in the guys’ voices after they worked 30 hours, took off for a few hours and the put in another 30 hours.”
A further complication from the storm is that PUD employees were unable to read meters in some areas.
Their bills for November will be estimated.
Commissioners to meet
Clallam County Public Utility District commissioners will meet at 1:30 p.m. today in the PUD headquarters, 2431 E. U.S. Highway 101.
They will discuss the impact of the November storms, and award bids to bury electric lines to the LaPush, Joyce-Piedmont Road and East Sequim Bay areas.
A work session on the PUD’s 2007 budget will start at 10:30 today. There will be another budget work session Dec. 11.