Thousands still without power

BY LUKAS VELUSH

Herald Writer

As many as 25,000 Snohomish County homes were still without power as of 11:45 a.m. today, the aftermath of a freak storm that swept across the county late Tuesday afternoon.

The storm knocked the power out at 150,000 homes, the second-largest outage in Snohomish County PUD history.

More than 100 trees fell on roads thoughout the county, including two that fell across two lanes of southbound I-5, delaying traffic four hours in the south Everett-Lynnwood area.

All the trees were removed by late last night, but many of the smaller limbs were still being cleaned up this morning.

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, power lines down, power lines down,” he said. “It was a long night.”

The boat launch at Rotary Park in Everett was blocked by a fallen tree for several hours, and the east entrance to Forest Park was temporarily closed by downed electrical wires, city spokeswoman Kate Reardon said.

“All of the parks are open now, but we’re out there doing a lot of cleanup,” she said.

The Marysville-Pilchuck High School pool was open for swimmers despite wind damage to the overhang of its roof. An insurance agent will assess the financial damage over the next three days, said Judy Parker, a school district spokeswoman.

In the Edmonds School District, Brier and Oak Heights elementaries along with Terrace Park K-8 School were closed because of power outages.

Skylar Thorpe’s family was still without power as of 10:30 a.m. today.

“The top halves of (two) trees pretty much snapped like twigs,” said Thorpe, who said his family spent the night in their south Everett home with only candles for light. “We’re probably going to end up tossing out some of our food,” said Thorpe, who was wondering when his power would come back on.

PUD spokeswoman Julee Cunningham said the utility had 48 crews working to bring the power back in the midmorning hours. Most folks had power back by 5 a.m., she said, adding that all but three substations are back on. One transmission line is also still off.

Reporters Victor Balta, David Olson, Katherine Schiffner and Eric Stevick contributed to this report.

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

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