Super blow brews offshore

If the Seahawks win the Super Bowl and no one can watch it on television, did they really win?

A massive windstorm expected today could leave TV sets dark all over Snohomish County come Super Bowl Sunday.

After 30 years of waiting, there’s a chance some of the football team’s long-suffering fans might not get to watch the game.

Winds from a storm that started in the tropics are expected to whip through the region today, potentially knocking over trees in waterlogged soil like dominos. And when trees fall, they often taken power lines with them.

Snohomish County PUD has more than 200 people ready to rush out and get the power back on as quickly as possible, said Neil Neroutsos, a spokesman for the utility district.

“It’s always a priority to keep people’s power up,” Neroutsos said. “Whether it’s the Super Bowl, whether it’s a day that’s important to people for some other reason, every day is important for us.”

Sustained winds of 30 mph to 40 mph and gusts up to 60 mph could hit as early as midmorning, said Julie Holcombe, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

If so, that would make it the strongest windstorm since 1999, when sustained winds of 45 mph and gusts up to 65 mph knocked the power out for 70,000 PUD customers.

It took only a few hours to get the power back on for 50,000 of those homes and businesses. But beware, Seahawks fans: It took 48 hours to get the last 20,000 back on line.

That means there could be a lot of football fans grabbing for a radio or looking for a friendly pub when kickoff rolls around Sunday afternoon.

And if it really gets bad and this storm reaches worst-ever status, some people may not have power for a week to 10 days.

Holcombe said the situation is made more dangerous because recent sustained rain has soils around the region so saturated that it may not take much to topple trees.

The soil can’t hold any more water, she said. Tree roots “will slice through it like cake.”

Neroutsos said the PUD is usually able to get most customers back on line by fixing major power lines first. Those with localized outages must wait until a repair crew can make it to their neighborhood.

That’s not good news if you’re hosting a Super Bowl party and a tree knocks out the power on your block.

“Some people might get creative and try to find someplace with power to watch,” Neroutsos said.

If the power is on at The Flying Pig in Everett, the game will be on, said Matt Thurlby, general manager.

“Everybody’s welcome to come in,” Thurlby said. “We don’t have any reservations.”

The forecast calls for heavy wind all day today, with the strongest gusts hammering the region at midday, Holcombe said.

The wind is expected to die down by Sunday, and the sun might even come back in the days following.

“Under every gray cloud there’s some silver lining,” she said.

Reporter Lukas Velush: 425-339-3449 or lvelush@heraldnet.com.

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