Much of Lake Stevens Still in the Dark

PUD crews working on 20th St NE in Lake Stevens Thursday

Lake Stevens and the surrounding areas were hit hard by the “Bomb Cyclone.” Crews have been working in and around Lake Stevens with minimal success. One-half to one-third of all outages in Snohomish County the past couple of days have been in this area.

On Wednesday morning, 33,000 homes in the area were without power. Thursday was 17,770, finally dropping down to 9,268 by 4pm.

Friday evening map of homes still without power

What Does it Look Like for Lake Stevens Residents?

Many in Lake Stevens lost power between 4:40 and 5 p.m. on Tuesday, right when the sun set. For those without natural gas or a backup generator, that meant a cold, dark night.

The winds gusts weren’t as bad as past years, but wind blew in a different direction than normal (west to east). This caused trees and powerlines to go down. Driving around Lake Stevens, it didn’t look as bad as many past storms.

What was different this time around was a very slow response. In the past, the PUD seemed to respond quickly (20 minutes to 2 hours), but something was different this time around. It’s unclear if it was the nature of the repairs, staffing issues, or different prioritization.

For those watching the outage maps and messages, Lake Stevens felt like an after thought, with most work not starting until Thursday afternoon. Priority seemed to go to more rural areas, maybe because greater danger, certainly not due to the quantity of outages.

With the roads clear, most residents could order rapid Amazon deliveries, but they couldn’t charge their phones. They could drive to the grocery store, but they were out of ice. They could drive to the hardware store, but all the generators were sold out.

The biggest problem was heat and darkness. Many homes without fireplaces  got down to 53-degrees inside. Many used their camping stoves or outdoor grills to cook. Most residents refrigerator food spoiled, and many will have their freezer items ruined as well.

One resident who had power set up an impromptu drive-by “charging station.”

Let’s hope with the next storm, Lake Stevens residents will be able to keep the lights on.