Jillian Raftery formerly worked on the newsdesk at KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM as an editor.
The Friday morning snow in Washington is creating issues for Puget Sound Energy crews trying to restore customers’ power after Wednesday’s windstorms. There are currently more than 15,000 customers without power, mostly on the east side and near Snoqualmie Pass, according toPSE spokesperson Andrew Padula confirmed the severity of the outages and that Friday morning snowfall has caused outage numbers to rise again.
“It’s this latest weather system that’s moved through that created some unexpected activity for us,” Padula said. “We currently have about 9,000 customers out, which is up, actually, from early this morning, when we were down to about 2,500 customers restored from yesterday’s storm.” The power outages include Snoqualmie Pass, where the ski area regained power Thursday night and then lost it again Friday morning. A spokesperson said they plan to “run Summit Central for day operations today, as we can run some lifts in off-grid mode. Night operations are to be determined. Alpental is also to be determined with needing power restoration to run ops at that base area.” Padula explained how the early morning snow has impacted some of the power lines, causing branches to fall and creating hazards for crews. “It looks like some of these branches that we’re seeing have been a result of this heavy snow falling on these branches, which could potentially create more problems for us as we start to try to do more work,” Padula said. “That also creates the challenges and the danger for our crews who are out there trying to check the lines and prioritize those systems to make sure that everything is working properly.”PSE will focus on remote terrain on Friday, which is much more challenging for crews to access and repair. “The foothills have been a bit more challenging trying to get to some of these remote areas, the terrain being a little bit more difficult, and now with the snow coming in, that’s creating some more problems for us,” Padula said. “The work today is trying to get to those locations where we can really do damage assessment on the system and then determine the repairs we need to make so we can get everyone’s power back on today. “The heavy snow is creating some problems and dangerous conditions for our crews; it takes a little bit more time for us to get out there. We are planning to get a helicopter to help with some of those patrols of our transmission lines, weather dependent, which will help us determine what areas maybe need to be fixed,” Padula continued. “I know there are already several, I think about eight, locations that we know of right now, on the Snoqualmie side, where we need to make some repairs. Just getting there is the challenge, though.”The Friday morning snow in Washington is creating issues for Puget Sound Energy crews trying to restore customers' power after Wednesday's windstorms.Snowy conditions could snarl morning commute in western WAMan trapped in camper for nearly 2 hours after 70-foot tree falls in Carnation Emergency crews rescued a man Wednesday night after a large tree fell onto a camper in Carnation, leaving him trapped inside.WSECU Community Champion: Chrystal Ortega’s mission to feed Spokane Chrystal Ortega's tireless dedication recently earned her the WSECU Community Champions Award and a $1,000 grant to further the mission.When Shawn Tibbitts opened Tibbitts FernHill, he was just trying to survive. The small Tacoma restaurant has since earned culinary awards and praise.Wilcox Family Farms is continuing its cherished holiday tradition of giving back by donating nearly one million eggs to food banks across the South Sound region this season.Matthew Ballantyne has transformed that early awareness into action, embodying the organization's mission:"No Kid Sleeps On The Floor In Our Town."Discover Kitsap County’s creative soul: Where Nordic charm meets gothic gardens and ancient traditions thrive Kitsap County is full of wonderfully weird, authentically artsy, and unexpectedly magical corners that make visitors become locals and locals never want to leave.
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