Puget Sound Energy officials say that power has been restored to a majority of its customers after the Nov. 19 bomb cyclone caused “catastrophic” damage and power outages throughout its coverage area.
Most of the outages reportedly occurred in Bainbridge Island, Poulsbo, Kingston, Port Gamble, Indianola, Hansville, and Keyport, PSE spokeswoman Melanie Coon said. The energy provider has been working for days to restore power to over half a million customers across the region, approximately 22,000 of those coming from Kitsap County and Vashon Island.
“All of PSE’s territory experienced catastrophic damage and outages from Tuesday (Nov. 19) night’s storm,” she said. “Kitsap outages were more localized to the northern half of the peninsula…which experienced the greatest wind speeds on Tuesday night.”
Trees blown over by the storm led to snapped power poles and downed wires throughout the Pacific Northwest, and the complexity of repairs required several pushbacks of power restoration times, specifically in Pierce and King counties. Line crews from Washington, Oregon and British Columbia were mobilized along with all of PSE’s first responders to address the outages, while Kitsap County road crews helped clear fallen trees, branches and debris across all three of its districts.
A check of PSE’s outage map on Nov. 25 shows no remaining outages that began Nov. 19 or the second smaller system to hit the Washington coast Nov. 22. Over 22,000 customers outside of Kitsap were still without power as of the morning of Nov. 25.
“We are prioritizing bringing the remaining schools back online and moving from neighborhood to neighborhood to repair distribution-level outages,” Coon said in a Nov. 23 update. “We added more crews overnight and also have crews wrapping up restoration efforts in other parts of our service area moving in to provide additional support to King County, our hardest hit area.”
Total damage estimates have not yet been released by PSE.
While the storm wanes, communities around Kitsap continue to weather its impacts. On Nov. 24, a downed tree cut power to Bainbridge High and Commodore Options schools, closing both BI’s largest school and largest supportive learning facility until power is restored. BHS students will have one more day of instruction Tuesday before leaving for Thanksgiving break Wednesday.
