High winds on the North Olympic Peninsula overnight caused several multiple power outages on the Clallam County PUD system.
More than 10,000 customers — mostly in the Sequim area — were affected, the PUD reported. By daylight, all but 200 had their power returned, the PUD said this mroning.
The winds began knocking down power lines or sending trees and limbs into lines shortly after 1 a.m.
The interruptions were scattered across the PUD’s 2,000-square mile service area with the biggest concentration
occurring in areas in and around Sequim. The storms also affected customers near Forks and Neah Bay.
The loss of transmission service from the Bonneville Power Administration’s Happy Valley Substation
south of Sequim at 2:27 a.m. cut service to more than 10,000 customers from Sequim east. PUD crews switched
transmission service connections to feed the system out of BPA’s Port Angeles substation. Customers affected
by the transmission outage were restored to service by 5:30 a.m.
PUD crews continue to respond to reports of scattered outages across its service area this morning.
Sgt. Nick Turner of the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office: “Throughout the county we had trees down and a few rocks in the road here and there, but overall we fared very well. We activated the Emergency Operations Center early this morning but it was already closed by 8:30 this morning.”
He said that he’d had reports of winds at Tattoosh Island sustained at 50 mph.
