BELLEVUE, Wash. — Puget Sound Energy announced Friday that the estimated time for power restoration for some of its customers has been pushed back to as late as Monday morning. The company initially said customers could anticipate power to resume by Saturday.
Three key restoration periods are on Saturday at noon, Sunday at 6 p.m. and Monday at 10 a.m., PSE said in the post.
According to a post on X from the energy company, due to severe damage to light poles and wires connected to its high-voltage system, PSE pushed back estimated restoration times for its customers. The system provides power to the community from where energy is produced.
Thousands of PSE customers have been in the dark for about five days following Tuesday’s “bomb cyclone,” killing two and cutting power to more than half a million people throughout the U.S. northwest.
According to the outage map on the PSE website, more than 83,000 impacted customers as of Saturday morning around 10 a.m. For more information about outage details and status, click here.
On Tuesday, the storm dumped rain and damaged power lines and poles throughout western Washington. Power was cut for thousands including families, schools and businesses. The hardest hit locations include Bellevue, Kirkland, Issaquah, Lake Hills, Mercer Island, Highlands Park and Sammamish.
Wind gusts were between 25-35 mph in Bellingham, Covington-Sawyer-Wilderness, Maple Valley, Monroe, Prairie Ridge, Enumclaw, Bonney Lake, Woodinville, Redmond, Bothell, Kenmore, Newport Hills, Sahalee and Pine Lake.
Then, on Friday, another wave swept the area from Olympia to San Juan and Skagit counties. Wind gusts in Greenwater and Enumclaw were 42 mph with North Bend recording 15 to 30+ mph wind gusts. Bellingham had 25 mph wind gusts.
PSE acknowledged community frustration caused by the new estimated restoration time, saying in part:
“We are working as hard as we can to get power restored to you sooner than the times listed above. As our field crews gain more detailed information about your outage, we will update the outage map with a more specific time. We know this is disappointing as you expected to have your power back on (Saturday). We are trying to give customers as early notice about this change as we can, with the information we have currently. We encourage you to continue to check the outage map for your estimated restoration time.”
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