Thousands still without electricity after back-to-back nights of strong, gusty winds tore through western Washington, leaving Whidbey Island's southern neighborhoods in darkness. But here's where it gets controversial: restoration work is moving in fits and starts, and residents are left waiting for clear timelines on when the lights will return.
As of 5 p.m. Thursday, Puget Sound Energy reported 10,186 customers without power, with 13 crews deployed across the island to get service back up. Local residents report roughly a 45-mile-per-hour gust, enough to topple trees and bend branches. Rocky Shore, a Whidbey Island resident of more than 20 years, said he uses a small meter to track gusts and noted his Clinton-area home has been without power for two days. "I just turn the generator on when I get up in the morning and turn it off when I go to bed at night," he explained.
PSE says power lines have been knocked down or badly damaged in about 70 locations across Whidbey Island. In the meantime, residents lined up at an outdoor store to fill propane tanks used to power homes and businesses during the outage.
"We had about 18 trees come down in the windstorm," said Grant Belleque, who works at Lakeside Bible Camp. "Yesterday was a lot of picking those up, cleaning those up." He added that the camp and its staff are grateful no campers were onsite and no one was injured during the heavy winds. Cleanup is underway at the camp, even though the lights are out, with hopes of returning to normal before the Christmas break.
PSE also reported that at least three of the four trees that fell across transmission lines have been cleared by crews. Once this initial response is complete, crews will be able to restore several of the utility's substations that went offline, followed by the remaining distribution lines.
Shore noted that the island experienced a total outage, and crews typically begin restoring service from the north—near the Navy base—and work southward, meaning Clinton-area neighborhoods are among the last to see power returned.
For the latest outage updates, you can check the PSE outage map at https://www.pse.com/en/outage/outage-map. And here's another question to spark discussion: should restoration priorities have been set differently, and how transparent is the timeline for people waiting in the dark? What's your take on the restoration strategy and the communication around it?
