The high winds that knocked out some power Wednesday caused a minor panic attack for turkey cooks throughout Snohomish County who feared their Thanksgiving plans would run afoul of the weather.
But power was restored and the windstorm, blowing in at about 25 mph, was expected to blow away by this morning, the National Weather Service reported.
Wednesday’s tempest caused two minor outages, knocking the power out for about 1,500 homes in Bothell for 20 minutes and turning the lights out for 1,000 customers in Mountlake Terrace for 15 minutes.
“Gusting winds knocked some tree limbs onto some of our power lines,” said Neil Neroutsos, a spokesman for Snohomish County PUD.
But the rain accompanying Wednesday’s wind is expected to stay for the remainder of the week. The rainstorm dropped 3 to 5 inches of rain Wednesday along the base of the Cascades, including parts of Snohomish County.
River levels were expected to drop below flood stage by early this morning, mainly because a cold front was expected to move in overnight, turning rain into snow at elevations above 2,500 feet.
Heavy rain caused the Pilchuck River to flood between Lake Stevens and Granite Falls Wednesday afternoon, forcing the closure of Schwartzmiller Road.
“(The Pilchuck River) comes up quickly when it rains hard,” said Mike McCallister, coordinator of the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management.
McCallister reminded drivers not to cross flooded roads even if it looks like there’s only a couple of inches of water on the road.
“Fast-moving water is very dangerous,” he said. “It only takes about 6 inches of rain to make a car so unstable that it will come off the road.”
McCallister said there also were some reports of flooding in the Sultan and Index areas.
“It’s only the smaller rivers and creeks that are flooding,” he said, adding that main rivers have enough capacity to handle the water from the swollen tributaries .
The National Weather Service issued a flood watch warning for Snohomish, King, Skagit, Whatcom, Jefferson, Mason and Clallam counties at 9 p.m. Tuesday. It was expected to stay in place until 6 a.m. today. A watch means flooding could happen but that there’s no certainty that it will.
“Right now we’re watching all the rivers,” Johnny Burg, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said Wednesday.
Reporter Lukas Velush: 425-339-3449 or lvelush@ heraldnet.com.
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