Powerful storm leaves more than 150,000 in the dark; winds subside but landslide risk continues



SEATTLE -- A storm packing strong winds knocked out power to more than 150,000 customers in Western Washington.

Though the weather has subsided, the National Weather Service says landslide risk continues Friday in as many are left in the dark.

From southwest Washington to Snohomish County, north of Seattle, weather-related power outages topped 150,000 customers, utilities reported by Thursday night.

Most of PSE's outages were in the Centralia, Olympia and Kitsap County with scattered outages reported in Tacoma and Bellingham.

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Tacoma Public Utilities reported 130  customers without power -- down from 22,500. Around 13,000 Snohomish PUD customers were out of power -- down from more than 50,000. Seattle City Light was reporting just a few hundred without power in Seattle, Shoreline and Renton.

As of 10 a.m. Friday, roughly 43,000 PSE customers are without power, PSE said.  Thurston County, Kitsap County and Whidbey Island are seeing a high number of outages.

One of the bigger problems after a storm is debris on the roadways and in areas where work needs to be done, PSE officials said.

Puget Sound Energy outage map | Seattle City Light outage map

The National Weather Service clocked a wind gust of 77 mph at Naselle in southwest Washington and a 61 mph gust at Camano Island, north of Seattle. A tree that fell on a southwest Washington home injured one man Thursday. Rough seas on the coast destroyed a third vacation house at a spot known as Washaway Beach.

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport had a gust of 48 mph. Airport spokesman Perry Cooper says no flights were affected.

The Red Wind Casino near Yelm closed after a tree toppled on an 18,000 gallon propane tank, sparking a huge fire. Th blaze caused highway 510 to be evacuated, and closed the casino. It was slated to be opened at 8 a.m. Friday.



Wind brought down trees across the region including in Arlington where a massive tree was blocking a road.

At least six apartments had to be evacuated when scaffolding came crashing down from a building in Redmond. Police said nobody was hurt, but  160th Avenue was closed between 83rd and 85th Avenue NE.



In Kelso, a 61-year-old man was taken to a hospital after a tree broke through the rafters of his house and hit him in his garage. The Daily News of Longview said the man's condition was not known.

Forecasters say this could be the biggest windstorm since one in 2006 knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of utility customers in Western Washington, some for more than a week.

Forecasters expect a calmer weekend with some sunshine and a return next week to occasional rain showers and mountain snow across the state.

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