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Battered county cleans up

Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, April 28, 2004

By Lukas Velush / Herald Writer

Snohomish County residents spent Wednesday sweeping up after a freak windstorm on Tuesday left half the county without power and knocked hundreds of trees onto houses, cars and roads.

As many as 18,000 Snohomish County homes were still without power on Wednesday afternoon in the aftermath of winds up to 55 mph that blew in suddenly from the northwest.

Power was knocked out to about 150,000 people, making it the second-largest outage in Snohomish County PUD history, spokesman Mike Thorne said. That number steadily dropped as 48 crews worked around the clock to bring power back on.

More than 500 trees fell on roads throughout the county, including two that fell across two lanes of southbound I-5 in the south Everett-Lynnwood area, delaying traffic for up to four hours.

Many traffic lights were still dark on Wednesday morning, causing major delays, especially on Highway 9.

But a two-hour electrical outage turned into a boon for the Everett Food Bank. A Safeway store had to discard 5,400 pounds of milk, yogurt and cheese that were in coolers when the outage occurred.

"Obviously, with the power being out a short time, there was no significant damage done," said Virginia Sprague, program director for the Everett Food Bank. "The stores would not give us any product where the integrity is threatened at all."

Elsewhere, lightning struck Debi Sprauge’s favorite cherry tree, splitting it down the middle.

"I saw the lightning and didn’t think anything about it," said Sprauge, who lives on a busy street in Silver Lake. In the morning, "it was like a big hatchet split it in half."

She said she was thankful the tree fell on her flatbed truck and not her home. "If it was turned the other way, it would have taken out my bedroom and my living room," she said.

The wind snapped the tops of two tall cedar trees at Brian Coffman’s Snohomish home, crushing his new shed and a lawn mower. "All of a sudden, I heard this snap, and they were down (on the ground) in half of a second," he said.

Sue Sullivan said an alder tree blocked her road in Snohomish. In the evening, small branches were flying in the air as if it had been raining, she said. "It was kind of eerie."

The power was out from 4 to 11 p.m., Sullivan said. But that didn’t cause many hassles, she said. "It’s fun. It’s an adventure."

About 50 county roads remained closed Wednesday, said Peter Hahn, director of the county’s Public Works Department. The county’s solid waste transfer station at Cathcart also was closed.

Firefighters in Snohomish County Fire District 4 in Snohomish responded to 54 storm calls in five hours, Chief Bob Merritt said. "There were trees into houses, trees into cars and power lines down," Merritt said. "It was a long night."

Around communities in the county:

  • Two streets in Everett remained closed because of downed wires caused by fallen trees, city spokeswoman Kate Reardon said. In addition, the east entrance to Forest Park was closed because of a downed wire. The west entrance remained open. A fallen tree temporarily closed the boat launch at Rotary Park.

  • The Mountain Loop Highway remained closed near the fish ladder east of Granite Falls. Trees that had fallen into power lines were hanging about 12 feet above the road. Some vehicles, however, were going around the "road closed" signs. The Menzel Lake Road was also blocked in both directions at the intersection with Waite Mill Road because of fallen trees, said Capt. Jim Haverfield of Fire District 17. But the Spar Tree Tavern was still open, and people were drinking beer by candlelight Tuesday evening.

  • The storm toppled 10 large trees in Catherine Creek Park in Lake Stevens, but the park did not close.

  • Marysville employees had to take down two trees that fell onto overhead power lines along Highway 528 near Jennings Nature Park.

  • On the Tulalip Reservation, a tree fell on a house near Marine Drive. Tribal forestry personnel used chain saws to cut up a number of trees that blocked roads, Police Chief Jay Goss said.

  • A woman scuba diver at Deception Pass on north Whidbey Island had trouble getting back to shore because of strong waves kicked up by the wind, Island County Fire District 2 Chief Marv Koorn said. Other divers took her heavy scuba tanks, which allowed her to swim ashore, Koorn said.

  • In Edmonds, Kristina Kulik was walking her dog and saw that a tree on a slope had fallen on top of an earthmover at a new development near her house "Had there been a house there, it would have fallen on the house," she said.

  • A tree came down across power lines and blocked Cedar Valley Road in Lynnwood, public works director Bill Franz said. The tree was still there Wednesday, awaiting for the utility company to remove it.

  • In Mukilteo, three trees came down on Mukilteo Speedway, public works director Tom Hansen said. Meanwhile, the Marysville-Pilchuck High School pool was open for swimmers Wednesday despite wind damage to the roof. In the Edmonds School District, Brier and Oak Heights elementary schools, along with Terrace Park School, were closed because of power outages. Snohomish School District closed six schools: Cathcart, Machias, Riverview, Seattle Hill and Totem Falls elementary schools, and Valley View Middle School.

    Schuyler Thorpe’s family watched the storm rip through their south Everett neighborhood.

    "The top halves of (two) trees pretty much snapped like twigs," Thorpe said, adding that his family spent the night with only candles for light. Power didn’t come back on until about 10 a.m. Wednesday.

    Reporters Victor Balta, Pamela Brice, Brian Kelly, Cathy Logg, Scott Morris, Yoshi Nohara, David Olson, Sharon Salyer, Katherine Schiffner and Eric Stevick contributed to this report. Reporter Lukas Velush: 425-339-3449 or lvelush@heraldnet.com.

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