Local News

Wind Storm Takes Out Power Across the County

May 31, 2017

Tuesday’s thunderstorms brought wind and lightning across the county. Several downed trees took out power in multiple areas. Power was out south of Malott in the Fox Mountain area but was restored around 8pm. Other areas, remain without power today.

At around 1:00 am, Wednesday, PUD crews located a transmission line pole that feeds the Methow Valley had been broken by burnt tree that had blown over. That pole is on a hill directly below the SR 20 washout at MP-211.8 on the Twisp side of the Loup.

Okanogan County Emergency Manager Maurice Goodall said the tree was one that had burned during the 2014 Carlton Complex Fire.

Goodall said the PUD had to call in Loyd Logging to assist in getting equipment into the site. He said, the work will have to be done by hand because the site is not accessible by truck.

Goodall said the PUD has estimated that they will have the power back on in the Methow Valley by 12 noon, today.

He said, the PUD also is reporting that Gold Creek and Chesaw from Sitzmark up are without power with no estimated time of repairs for those areas.

Goodall stressed, STAY AWAY FROM DOWNED POWER LINES and IF USING A GENERATOR MAKE SURE IT IS ISOLATED FROM INCOMING PUD SERVICE so that you do not back feed into the system.

If you are outside of these areas and are without power, you are asked to call the PUD at 422-3310 to report the outage.

Goodall said there were several small lightning strike fire starts, but none had gone anywhere as of this morning.