Thousands still without power in Snohomish County as temperatures drop

After heavy rain and high winds arrived in Western Washington, some areas are still dealing with power outages.

Kelly Stickney, spokesperson for Snohomish County Public Utilities District, says the area hasn’t seen a storm this large since 2015. Stickney reports some field crews think its been 30y or 40 years since they’ve responded to damage this widespread.

“When you get these epic once in a few decades storms, it just takes time,” said Stickney.

According to Stickney, PUD had over a hundred crews out working Monday. She says they had to contract additional trained utility workers to help with cleanup and repairs. Some came as far away as Gray’s Harbor to lend a hand.

“The drought we experienced throughout the summer, that’s put trees in distress,” said Stickney.

She suspects many weakened trees were unable to hold up through the heavy winds.

Several school districts started classes late or canceled them entirely on Tuesday. See the full list of closures and cancellations here.

Snohomish County has opened several cold weather shelters.

Forecast:

TUESDAY: By daybreak Tuesday, it’ll be breezy and cold but mainly clear with morning temperatures in the 20s to low 30s. KIRO 7 Chief Meteorologist Morgan Palmer predicts a low of 33 degrees at Sea-Tac in the morning, but if we get to 32 degrees, that would be the first freezing temperature of the season for Seattle, officially, and about a week ahead of the average first freeze, which is November 13. If we don’t get to freezing Tuesday morning, we likely will Wednesday morning.

Tuesday will be cold and mainly sunny and breezy at times with highs in the lower 40s for Seattle.

WEDNESDAY: Morning lows Wednesday will be in the 20s to near 30 for most – the coldest morning of the season.

It will be mainly sunny but we could have a few more clouds each day starting Thursday going through the weekend, but it looks to be a dry forecast after this evening and tonight. From Wednesday on, it will remain quite cold but temperatures moderate a few degrees through the period. Highs will be in the 40s with lows in the low to mid 30s.

VIDEO: Damaging winds hit western Washington

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