Windstorm Knocks Out Power for Thousands of Lewis County Residents

A windstorm that swept through southwestern Washington Saturday night and into Sunday morning left its undeniable mark on Lewis County, with over 8,000 reports of power outages in the immediate aftermath of the storm.

With the exception of a report here or there, a Lewis County Public Utility District 1 representative said all of the customers affected in widespread areas were back up and running as of Monday.

Corenne Moses, communications liaison with PUD, said they started getting reports of outages at around 11:30 p.m. Saturday. As the night crept into the early morning hours, very few parts of Lewis County were spared from some form of damage. Moses said the west side of the county saw the least of the blow.

Chehalis, Napavine, Toledo and Winlock all suffered huge outages, said Moses — as did essentially all communities east of Interstate 5.

A representative from Centralia City Light did not immediately respond to a request for an interview to discuss Centralia’s numerous outages.

In all, 8,275 PUD customers were without power due to wind damage, said Moses, who added they were all back on within a roughly 24-hour time frame.

Primarily, outages were caused by trees taking out power lines. Moses said it’s a year-long endeavor to maintain the trees in the immediate vicinity of power lines. However, with the area’s rugged nature, it’s an inevitability that they’ll hit the lines from time to time during a high-wind situation.

“Trees are a constant that we work on year-round,” said Moses.

Lewis County Emergency Management Director Steve Mansfield said gusts were around 55 miles per hour, and said crews were out through the night and into the early morning hours clearing debris and keeping roads clear.

Chief Robert Scott, with West Thurston Regional Fire Authority, told a similar story. The department, just to the north of Lewis County, posted dramatic photos on their social media pages, showing trees and utility poles sprawling across roadways and strewn debris.

Independence Road near the Chehalis River Bridge was the worst spot in their jurisdiction, he said.

In such situations — when the wind is still blowing strong, but roadways still need to cleared — Scott said he was stuck with some judgment calls. For instance, he had his crews pull back from clearing a tree from the road near 173rd Avenue and Sergeant Road Southwest. He said the wind speed was still considerable and there were other tall trees in the area that could crush first responders if they were too close.

In the Rochester area, a 42-year-old Arabian gelding horse was struck and knocked down by a fallen fir tree branch, according to a post from the West Thurston Fire Facebook page. Volunteer Capt. Tom Berryman responded early Sunday morning and freed the horse using a tractor and rope harness.

The horse was soon back on his feet.

Scott advised anyone to stay inside if the wind is strong. He noted social media posts of folks out surveying the damage, and requested anyone avoid being in the way of first responders or putting themselves in hazardous locations.

While Mansfield said Monday the total costs of damage — either to public or private infrastructure — wasn’t tallied, he doubted there was enough of a price tag for disaster declaration. Such declarations usually require a statewide damage total of $9 million.

If anyone experienced damage to their personal property, he said, they should contact their insurance company.