Thousands of residents were still without power Sunday morning after strong winds and heavy rains swept through the area overnight and the day before.
The power utility Puget Sound Energy is reporting that 148,000 customers throughout its entire service area, including Pierce and Thurston counties, remain in the dark.
The South Sound felt the brunt of the storm, according to PSE.
“Damage is the heaviest in Pierce and Thurston counties,” PSE officials said in a 6 a.m. update. “The high winds and resulting tree damage not only downed the smaller, local power lines, but also damaged the larger transmission lines — the power lines that bring power into the communities. We dispatched helicopters this morning to these areas to assess damage to our transmission lines.”
The need to first fix those larger power lines could slow power restoration efforts, according to PSE.
“Transmission lines need to be brought back into service before crews can focus on the local distribution system within neighborhoods and communities,” PSE officials said.
Find Energy, another service that tracks power outages, is reporting that about 24,000 utility customers in Thurston County don’t have power.
“This represents 17.31% of the 140,897 customers we track in the county,” the Find Energy information reads.
In Pierce County, about 33,000 customers across several utilities, including PSE and Tacoma Power, also don’t have power, Find Energy reports.
The National Weather Service wind advisory that was issued for the region on Saturday came to an end Sunday morning.
Wind gusts of 45 miles per hour were recorded in the Olympia area Saturday afternoon, according to National Weather Service data. In the Seattle/Tacoma area, wind gusts reached 47 mph, the data show.
The storm appears to be over. The forecast for the remainder of the week shows rain and much lighter winds, according to the National Weather Service.
A Puget Sound Energy map shows power outages throughout South Sound.
