The winds that brought 61 mph gusts to Everett on Saturday, leaving 175,000 people without power in Snohomish County and on Camano Island, are being called “the strongest summer storm in Northwest history” by University of Washington atmospheric sciences professor Cliff Mass.
“We normally have wind storms during the winter,” he said. “There’s never been anything like this from May through September. This is what we’re talking about as a mid-latitude cyclone. The intensity of the storm was unprecedented.”
The 175,000 power outages in Snohomish County and on Camano Island equalled the number of outages during the Inauguration Day storm of 1993, Snohomish County PUD spokesman Neil Neroutsos said.
By late afternoon Monday, that number had dropped to 23,000 customers, but “these last remaining customers will be a real challenge,” he said. Bringing the remaining customers back online is time-intensive. “A pole replacement takes several hours and you have to cut through trees and brush to get access to the infrastructure that’s been damaged,” he said.
The remaining outages are scattered throughout the county. Camano Island was hard hit because of the density of trees and exposure to incoming weather. South Snohomish County, where several high-voltage transmission lines were knocked down, also had high numbers of customers without power.
“This is an extremely challenging storm,” Neroutsos said. “We’ll be working over the next couple of days, and potentially more, to resolve the bulk of it.”
Fifty-three PUD crews were working to restore power on Monday. They’re being assisted by crews from Chelan, Cowlitz and Grant counties, as well as Gig Harbor’s Peninsula Light Company, he said. Crews from Grays Harbor, Benton and Franklin counties are on their way.
Puget Sound Energy reported up to 27,000 customers without power Monday, including outages on Whidbey Island from Oak Harbor to Clinton.
Overall, more than half-million people lost power in the Puget Sound region. “The first storm normally takes down a lot of trees and branches,” Mass said. “But this storm, with the leaves on the trees, they act like big kites.”
Some suspect that the summer’s long drought contributed to trees being blown to the ground or limbs being cracked off. “Trees stressed from lack of water can drop limbs more easily,” he said.
The storm’s severity was caused by an extremely low pressure system moving through the area. “The pressure dropped really fast and came up really fast,” Mass said.
Camano Island Fire and Rescue responded to more than 50 calls Saturday and a dozen more Sunday, most of them weather-related, assistant fire chief Levon Yengoyan said. The department handles five or six calls per day on average, “but that number of calls is common for windstorms out here,” he said. “Most of those were for trees or power lines down, and we’re able to prioritize those.”
There were two water rescues near the island during the storm. Saturday morning, a rescue boat from the Center for Wooden Boats at Cama Beach State Park assisted a vessel in distress. “It was a 19-foot boat and they were just bailing water in danger of being swamped,” Yengoyan said.
On Saturday evening, a 12-foot aluminum boat capsized and two people were in the water for about half an hour before the department, with the help of a nearby commercial boat and the Coast Guard, were able to rescue them. Both boaters were OK and did not need to be taken to the hospital
There also were two weather-related car accidents, one with minor injuries and another in which a pickup truck hit a fallen tree. “In both cases it was a tree that fell right in front of the car and they couldn’t stop in time,” Yengoyan said.
A worker with a private tree-clearing crew also was injured Sunday when the tree he was cutting back snapped and struck him. He was taken to the hospital.
Saturday’s windstorm was certainly unusual for the month of August, he said, but the severity wasn’t out of line for a winter storm on the island. In the past, there have been storms so bad crews had to shelter in the station until it was safe to respond to calls. “We didn’t get that bad Saturday,” Yengoyan said. “It certainly would be considered a significant but typical winter storm.”
The storm brought record rainfall for that date at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, dumping 1.28 inches in a 24-hour period. The previous record for that day was .87 inches in 1983.
Two people were killed by the windstorm. Samara Iereneo, 10, of Burien was killed when she was hit by a falling branch. And James Fay, 36, of Gig Harbor was killed Saturday morning when a tree fell on his car.
Mass said it’s another reminder that people should stay home when the major windstorms hit.
“When you have millions of people there will be somebody in the wrong place and the wrong time,” he said. “Trees are a force multiplier for us. We have these big trees that really can get you.”
The Associated Press contributed.
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com
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