PUD works to repair damage that cut power to about 28K customers; schools and Edmonds College closed

Southwest Snohomish County residents awoke to power outages, downed power lines and broken tree limbs following a windstorm that hit the area Tuesday night.

The Edmonds School District said all schools would be closed Wednesday due to power outages and current road conditions. All after-school activities and evening events at district buildings (including non-district events) are also canceled, the district said. Edmonds College also said it would be closed Wednesday, with all classes and activities canceled.

Snohomish County PUD spokesperson Aaron Swaney said that about 28,000 PUD customers were without power Wednesday morning, with most of them in the areas of Edmonds, Lynnwood and Mountlake Terrace.

"We are looking at some significant damage to our system, including trees down across wires and poles down, in the southwest portion of the county," Swaney said. "We have more than 30 crews out in the field currently, but road conditions are challenging and are currently slowing down our processes. "

Customers can check the status of outages and report one at the outage map link.

Many residents reported seeing flashing lights and loud bangs in their neighborhood, which they assumed was a blown transformer. Swaney said that nearly all of the time it is due to the cutout or fuse that is opening up in the power pole, often caused by an animal or falling branch. "This ‘opens’ the circuit and de-energizes the lines due to a fault somewhere along the circuit," he said.

In the City of Mountlake Terrace, all city facilities — including the Recreation Pavilion — wereclosed due to conditions. "We will reassess mid-morning," the city said in a news alert. "All city plows are deployed and crews are applying de-icer," the alert said. "Crews worked throughout the night on storm cleanup." The city noted that widespread power outages will affect traffic signals, and reminded residents not to approach downed power lines.