EVERETT — Linemen worked through near-freezing temperatures Saturday night to restore power to a few hundred Snohomish County PUD customers who have been without electricity since heavy wind and rain hit the area earlier in the week.
Nearly all customers should have power back by Sunday morning, Public Utility District spokesman Bob Bolerjack said.
At its peak, Tuesday’s windstorm left about 150,000 PUD customers without power. That is slightly less than half of the district’s 332,000 customers. It was the second-worst storm for the utility in terms of power outages. The worst storm hit this past August, when about 175,000 customers lost power.
After the storm, the PUD put as many repair crews in the field as it could support, Bolerjack said.
By Thursday, nearly 90 crews — about 500 workers — were in the field. They were backed by another 500 workers providing administrative and logistical support.
The crews included 12 from contractors and 24 from utilities in Washington and Oregon.
With the biggest repairs finished, the PUD has started releasing those other crews, he said.
Much of the remaining work is repairing the power lines that connect individual homes and other buildings to bigger power lines, he said.
PUD linemen “will stay on the job until everyone has power restored,” Bolerjack said.
Dan Catchpole: 425-339-3454; dcatchpole@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @dcatchpole.
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