After hitting Northern California with hurricane force winds yesterday, the remnants of an atmospheric river storm moved up the coast through the Cascades overnight.
While winds lost some of their initial strength, thousands of residents throughout East Lewis County still lost power throughout the night as the wind blew trees and branches into power lines.
The Lewis County Public Utility District (PUD) could not provide the exact number of how many residents lost power throughout the night, but PUD Communications and Public Relations Specialist Daniel Hargrove stated 3,514 customers were without power at the outage’s peak at around 11 p.m. on Wednesday.
Residents reported power outages in Onalaska, Salkum, Morton, Mossyrock, Mineral, Elbe, Ashford and other communities throughout East Lewis County starting at around 7:30 p.m Wednesday night.
As of 1 p.m. on Thursday, power had been restored throughout most of East Lewis County.
“We are thankful for our crews’ hard work throughout the night and during the storm. As always, they worked diligently to get the power back on as quickly and safely as possible in tough conditions,” Hargrove said.
He added it would probably be a few days before the PUD had the final total of how many customers lost power and the exact extent of the damage.
According to Kirby Cook, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service office in Seattle, wind speed sensors southeast of Glenoma near Riffe Lake picked up wind gusts above 50 mph throughout the night.
“Winds were sustained east-southeast around 33 mph gusting to 56,” Cook said. “Leading up to that it was sort of gusting in the low 50s up to around 2 to 4 a.m., and there were some potentially higher gusts earlier around 9 p.m.”
Though the storm has passed, Cook stated windy conditions can be expected again Thursday night. The winds will be southerly and not as strong with gusts somewhere between 20 and 30 mph.
“Areas along the (Cowlitz) River are more susceptible to easterly winds than southerly. The windier spots will be the higher elevations and most likely west Lewis County,” Cook said.
He added residents should still check for forecast updates as conditions can always change.
Area forecasts can be checked by clicking on the map on the National Weather Service website online at https://www.weather.gov/sew/.
To report a power outage, call the PUD at 800-562-5612. To view the PUD’s online outage map, visit https://www.lcpud.org/outages-safety/power-outages/.
