july said:

These storms always seem to bring out the best in people. That is the same way it is here, people helping people and everyone cheerful in spite of the hardships. We get these storms at least once a year, so I really know what you're going through.
I'm terribly sorry about your trees. It takes so long to replace them and the scars the storm damage leaves on the remaining ones is very sad.
Again for everyone there.

my mom lives in portland and their power has been out for a couple of days now. luckily, the temps are in the 50s there and she has a fireplace....

shellyevon said:

XxAxX said:

You know when the storm actually hit. The temperature was actually 56 degrees in the Seattle area. The day after the storm the temperatures were in the low 30's. That is a long time without power. At least you mom has a fireplace. Best wishes on her getting her power back.

july said:

And it stayed above 50 degrees during most of the storm.
The temperatures were up.
Today it's in the low 30's again.
It is is the mid 30's in most of Oregon today though. Like 36 degrees.

july said:

i spoke with her and she said it's back on now. apparently, came back on in the middle of the night yesterday or something. just a scary wake-up call at 2:00 a.m. featuring lights! television! radios! but at least the power did come back on.

XxAxX said:

Great news. Good for her. It's going to be cold tonight. Here in Seattle and Oregon.

Where the power is still out in Seattle and the Eastside
By Mike Lindblom

Seattle Times staff reporter

Outlying areas on the Eastside are expected to remain dark for several days, officials said this afternoon, while power in Seattle has been mostly restored except for pockets of south-end neighborhoods.

Puget Sound Energy reports that about 280,000 of its 1.1 million customers in Western Washington and Kittitas County remain without power as of 2 p.m., said spokesman Grant Ringel.

PSE is re-connecting homes quickly in Bothell, Kenmore, Juanita, Kirkland, and the Sammamish Plateau, where many or most customers will regain power soon, he said. And about 60 percent of PSE customers in Pierce, Thurston and Kitsap counties have their power back.

However, places like Cougar Mountain in Bellevue, rural Woodinville, outlying parts of North Bend, Snoqualmie, Duvall, Carnation and Skykomish in east King County will take longer to reconnect.

"We anticipate the more-isolated customers will see several more days out," said Ringel. Within the next day or two, more crews will arrive from as far as Kansas, bringing the total to over 400 crews working the PSE grid, he said. On a normal day, the private utility deploys 60 staff and contractor crews.

Much of Mercer Island was without power.

"There was a ton of damage," from trees collapsing onto power lines, said spokesman Grant Ringel.

Puget Sound Energy reported some homes are reconnected, but the utility is not yet predicting when the island as a whole will regain power. Mercer Island hasn't been placed in the "several days" category yet like Skykomish or Carnation; the spokesman said "we're evaluating the whole system" on the island. "We still have a lot of work."

In Seattle, about 22,000 homes and businesses lacked power by 1:30 p.m. today, said Seattle City Light communications director Suzanne Hartman.

Scattered outages persist in South Park, Madrona, Leschi, Rainier Valley, and West Seattle near Lincoln Park, Hartman said, as well as in suburban Normandy Park, Burien, Skyway, and Tukwila.

Restoring power a "slow go" for thousands of residents
By Nick Perry

Seattle Times staff reporter



The job of restoring power to tens of thousands of Puget Sound residents who are surviving without heat or light is proceeding painfully slowly as crews encounter downed lines that are more snarled than they've ever seen.

And a mild storm that's expected to hit the region Wednesday could cause more delays and problems. Some residents, who already have spent five nights without power since last week's severe windstorm, are preparing to spend the holidays in the dark.

The death toll also continues to rise: Four family members were found dead in Burien and a fifth was rushed to the hospital in critical condition, all likely victims of carbon-monoxide poisoning. Authorities said the family, the youngest of whom was 14, had been running a generator in a closed garage attached to their house.

At least 12 people have died as a result of the storm.

Early this morning, a family of five was taken to a local hospital to be treated for carbon monoxide poisoning after burning coal or charcoal in a small stove in their Shoreline living room, said Shoreline Fire Department spokeswoman Melanie Granfors.

Around the region, nearly 170,500 people were still without power Monday night. Some of the worst-hit areas were on the Eastside, including Bellevue, Mercer Island, Woodinville, North Bend, Duvall and Carnation. Elsewhere, south Burien, Shoreline, parts of West Seattle and Seward Park remained dark.

By 4 p.m. Monday, Puget Sound Energy had 150,000 customers without power, and progress was far slower than hoped. In the Snohomish County Public Utility District, 5,500 customers remained without power. And Seattle City Light was on pace to restore power to only half the number it hoped Monday, leaving 15,000 in the dark. The utilities hope to restore just about everyone by the week's end but warn that isolated problems could continue beyond that.

"I'm afraid that this is going to go on much longer than people think," said Christopher Heimgartner, a customer service and energy delivery officer with the Seattle utility. "It's a very, very tough, slow go."



Heimgartner said crews are accustomed to replacing spans of wire that have been damaged in one or two spots. But crews are often finding six or seven separate areas of damage, creating much more work. Crews with other utilities are encountering similar delays.

National Weather Service meteorologist Gary Schneider said Wednesday's storm is expected to bring 10- to 20-mph winds in Seattle and perhaps up to 30 mph in some outlying areas: "For December, that's completely normal."

But this is not a typical week.

"If we get even moderate winds, we may find quite a few of those trees that were just on the edge may tip over, and we may have a bunch of additional outages," Heimgartner said.

Authorities were also warning people to beware of downed lines that may become live — and deadly — as power is switched back on. A Gig Harbor man and his dog died Sunday when the man stepped on a downed line hidden in a tree.
[Edited 12/19/06 13:26pm]