Tens of thousands without power in western Washington since Tuesday storms

(The Center Square) - Power repair crews continue working around the clock to restore heat and lights to nearly 200,000 customers knocked off the grid in Tuesday’s destructive storm.

As of Friday afternoon, Puget Sound Energy (PSE) still had more than 166,000 customers without power.

“I can’t underscore enough how severe this storm was,” said PSE’s Melanie Coon. “It’s comparable to hurricane force winds and we haven’t seen this kind of storm in decades, so there’s a ton of damage.”

Two women were killed in the storm. A woman was killed in her Bellevue home when a tree crushed the residence, and a homeless woman living in an encampment in Lynnwood was also killed by a falling tree.

Seattle City Light was still working to restore more than 4,000 customers and Snohomish PUD had more than 13,600 customers still in the cold as of noon Friday.

“Our field crews and hundreds of logistical support staff are working around the clock to restore power,” said Coon with PSE, who told The Center Square they’re getting a lot of help from crews outside the state.

“We have 143-line crews working around the clock and that’s three-and-a-half times what we usually have,” said Coon, “We have crews from Oregon, Idaho and Canada here working too.”

Northwest trees weren’t ‘rooted’ for direction of the storm.

“Normal winds around here come from the west and blow east, and the trees are used to that and it’s how they are rooted,” said Coon. “But the wind in this event came from the east because it was a cyclone and it was rotating and the trees did not have the root structure to accommodate that, plus the ground was saturated and that contributed to the trees moving more than they normally would.”

Even before the destructive storm, PSE announced customer rates are going up in 2025, so will they go up even more now?

“That is too soon to know,” said Coon. “But we have not seen a storm like this is 20 years."

Given PSE is a private company, Coon said whether Gov. Jay Inslee ultimately makes a disaster declaration for impacts from the storm, may not have any effect on PSE recovery costs.

A release from Inslee Thursday said in part:

“State agencies are closely monitoring the storm’s impacts. It may be weeks before we can determine the full impact in terms of dollars. Once local governments are able to assess damages, we’ll know whether we will be able to seek federal assistance. In the meantime, our emergency management teams are always on standby to assist local governments who request help.”

Previously announced rate increases for PSE customers as posted on their website-

2025 – An overall 6.74% increase in rates generating an additional $192.2 million in revenue. A typical residential customer using 800 kilowatt-hours would see an overall average 7.19% increase, or $7.84 per month.

2026 – An overall 9.30% increase in rates generating an additional $285.2 million in revenue. A typical residential customer using 800 kilowatt-hours would see an overall average 9.58% increase, or $11.20 per month.

Natural Gas Service

2025 – An overall 18.96% increase in rates generating an additional $196 million in revenue. A typical residential customer using 64 therms would see an overall average 17.29% increase, or $13.96 per month.