Wenatchee hit hard by windstorm
WENATCHEE – Chelan County commissioners Monday declared a disaster to deal with damage from a weekend windstorm that left more than 18,000 homes and businesses without power amid tree-littered streets.
There were no reported injuries in the storm that blew the roof off at least one Wenatchee-area business and tore down hundreds of trees. Wenatchee Mayor Dennis Johnson closed city parks because so many trees had fallen.
Elsewhere in the state, high winds stranded four workers on the Tacoma Narrows bridge, major east-west routes through the Cascade Range were closed periodically for avalanche control and a flood watch was issued Monday for the Chehalis River at Chehalis.
The latest storms followed blustery weather that cut electricity to about 150,000 utility customers late Friday night and early Saturday, including 105,000 in Snohomish County, 34,000 in the nine counties served by Puget Sound Energy and 10,000 served by Avista Utilities of Spokane. Winds were clocked unofficially at 130 mph about 1:30 p.m. Sunday at the Mission Ridge ski area, about 12 miles southwest of Wenatchee. The National Weather Service reported gusts to 64 mph at 6 p.m. at Pangborn Memorial Airport outside East Wenatchee.
Chelan County Public Utility District officials reported about 15,000 customers in the dark at the height of the windstorm Sunday, and thousands of others were without power in neighboring Douglas County. The roof was blown off a billiards hall in East Wenatchee.
Power could be out for days in some areas, PUD spokesman Steve Lachowicz said.
To the south, in Yakima, the weather service reported winds gusting to 54 mph at 7 p.m. and Pacific Power officials reported more than 2,900 customers without electricity, including outages in Union Gap, Naches, Tieton and White Swan as well as in Yakima.
“What’s happened is a jet stream of strong westerly winds over the Cascades came over and warmed up as they came down,” said Diane Coonfield, weather service forecaster in Yakima.
West of the Cascades, four workers on the unfinished second span of the Tacoma Narrows bridge were stuck on a deck section about 200 feet below the bridge deck for 3 1/2 hours early Sunday.
Melanie Coon, a state Transportation Department spokeswoman, said they decided to stay put when the wind rose while they were working. All reached safety without injury when they later attached an additional winch line to stabilize their basket and returned to a suspension walkway about 5 a.m, Coon said.
South of Olympia, the rain-swollen Chehalis River was rising toward flood stage with the weather service predicting the crest would likely reach Chehalis on Monday evening.
Flooding was expected in and around Bucoda along the Skookumchuck River, a tributary of the Chehalis, after nearly 3 inches of rain fell between Friday morning and Sunday night at Olympia Regional Airport, according to the weather service.
Interstate 90 at Snoqualmie Pass and U.S. 2 at Stevens Pass were closed intermittently Sunday as explosives were detonated to remove avalanche hazards.
Rainier Avenue South, a major thoroughfare in the south end of Seattle, was closed for 12 hours because of a mudslide.