Residents navigate pitch-black conditions in Maple Valley after storm cuts power

MAPLE VALLEY, Wash. — With the brunt of the storm out of the way, people are trying to navigate their way through a pitch-black Maple Valley on Wednesday.

Thousands of homes and businesses are expected to be without power until Saturday. View the outage map here.

KIRO 7 spoke with a man who took matters into his own hands when he got stuck in State Route 18 traffic Tuesday night.

“There were trees still on the road a bunch of logs and stuff. It was really hard to get around,” said Maple Valley resident Aiden Munson.

Munson says he hit a big roadblock that trapped him in others for another two hours.

“It was me and a semi-truck side-by-side, and it was the biggest tree that came down live right in front of us, so it was pretty terrifying to slam on the brakes,” Munson said.

Instead of waiting for help, he and other drivers decided to handle it themselves. Munson said he used his car and a chain to pull the tree off the highway.

“We were able to wrap it around, wrap the chain around right here and just pull it almost out of the way, but not enough,” he said.

It took everything out of Munson’s car, including his suspension and his gas.

“I walked for probably 5 miles back up Highway 18 to both try and find people but also to go and get gas and there was there was nothing,” he said.

Munson said he was able to push his car down a hill enough to get it back home safely.

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