Utility crews are busy restoring power to thousands of North Olympic Peninsula customers who were left in the dark by storm-related outages this afternoon.
Clallam County Public Utility District crews restored power to 1,168 of at least 1,560 customers as a strong weather system swept across the region.
The outages were caused by the wind blowing trees and limbs into overhead power lines, Clallam County PUD chief engineer David Proebstel said.
East of Sequim, 676 customers lost power in the Diamond Point area at about noon. Power was restored at about 3:30 p.m.
On the West End of Clallam County, 492 customers lost power in the LaPush area at 1:03 p.m. Power was restored at about 3:30 p.m.
In Forks, power went off for 120 customers along Bogachiel Way at 1:12 p.m.
Power went off for another 272 customers south of Forks six minutes later. Crews continued to work on the Forks-area outages this evening, Proebstel said.
About 5,000 of the 14,000 Puget Sound Energy customers without power this afternoon were in a tri-county region that covers Jefferson, Kitsap and Whatcom counties.
“There are scattered outage through other areas like King County,” said Abigail Elliott, PSE spokeswoman.
By 4:30 p.m., the outages were down to about 4,000, mostly in Kitsap and Skagit counties.
PSE sent tree cutting and service crews to Jefferson County on Thursday in anticipation of a Hood Canal Bridge closure.
As of 5 p.m., Hood Canal Bridge remained open.
State Highway 19 was reopened at 6:40 p.m. after a 1:30 p.m. wreck in which a car hit a fallen tree blocked both lanes of the route at Four Corners Road.
State Department of Transportation crews reopened U.S. Highway 101 at milepost 166 at Lower Hoh Road at 4:30 p.m.
The roadway was blocked there at 2:15 p.m. because of two downed trees.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
