PUD Says Tuesday’s Event May Be Most Damaging Storm on Record

According to the Snohomish PUD, Tuesday’s storm has the potential to be among the most damaging the PUD has on record. 9 transmission lines went out. Nearly 3 dozen PUD crews were working in the field. As of 11:00 PM 2 of the 9 transmission lines had been restored and there were still more than 125,000 people without power.

In order to get a handle on all of the wires down and related sparking and fire calls the Everett Fire Department activated its Fire Operations Center and called in two more engine companies, a ladder company and another medic unit. They also called in supervisors and inspectors to oversee areas where wires were down so engines and medic units could be freed up for other calls. In all more than 20 personnel were called in during the storm.

Literally dozens of trees fell all across Everett bringing down power lines and plunging neighborhoods into darkness. Fire and Police personnel tried to mark the hazards as best they could but there was a major issue with people driving around their cones and tape ending up directly on top of wires that either were hot or could become energized whenever the PUD flipped the switch.

Accidents were another concern as people failed to slow at major intersections and either ran into the back of one another or hit one another head on.

The PUD is working around the clock to restore power but due to the damage to transmission lines this outage period may be much longer than people in Everett are used to experiencing. First transmission lines, then substations and finally neighborhoods and individual customers are brought back on line. We’ll update again when we know more.