Tuesday’s windstorm knocks down trees and power throughout Redmond
Published 10:32 am Wednesday, November 18, 2015
As a result of Tuesday’s windstorm, a large tree fell around 5 p.m., striking power lines and partially blocking the roadway in the 9200 block of 166 Avenue Northeast in Redmond.
Preliminarily identified as a Cedrus deodara by on-duty personnel, this tree has continued to result in a blockage preventing the flow of northbound and southbound traffic on 166 Avenue Northeast. Becky Range, public information officer for the Redmond Police Department, said currently, the hard road closures in that area are southbound side of 166th Avenue Northeast near Northeast 90 Court and the northbound side of 166th Ave Northeast near Northeast 92nd Street.
Residents are asked to detour using Northeast 88th Street or access local homes via Northeast 89th Street, Range said.
There are currently two City of Redmond public works employees on site assisting with traffic, she added.
The fallen tree is suspected as the primary cause of a power outage affecting the Education Hill neighborhood.
According to Akiko Oda, a spokesperson for Puget Sound Energy, about 54,000 customers in north King County are currently out of power. This includes Redmond as well as other communities north of the city limits such as Kirkland and Woodinville, she said.
“This is the region with the largest number of customers without power, specifically in the northern part of the county,” Oda said. “Many of these outages have been in Kirkland, Juanita, Woodinville, Bothell and Kenmore.”
She said PSE crews are still assessing the damage in Redmond and are not able to give a breakdown of number by city, but they are currently out working to restore power to customers and expect to make “significant progress” today, she said. (The City of Redmond offers the following tips for protecting your food during a power outage:http://bit.ly/FoodSpoilage)
She added that the crews in Redmond are focusing on the downed tree on Education Hill.
At 3 p.m. Wednesday, Oda said their crews were making good progress and expect to continue the work in to the evening hours and overnight. She said they expect power will be restored to most remaining customers by Thursday, with repairs continuing in some hard hit areas through Friday and Saturday.
Oda said PSE brought in additional crews to support their servicemen and line crews.
“We’re still working on repairing parts of our transmission system,” she said. “Many lines were damaged during the wind storm. They’re a priority since they provide electricity to tens of thousands of customers.”
PSE visited the site of the Education Hill power outage early Wednesday morning for an assessment, and as of 11 a.m. Wednesday, Range said the tree was still down and had not been removed. She said PSE informed her that it is going to take most of the day to get it repaired and for street to be reopened.
Redmond police and public works crews will be keeping the access to this area blocked for the safety of motorists and pedestrians.
Redmond police advise people that as they leave for work this morning to consider using alternate routes and use caution should they encounter intersections with blacked out traffic control signals as a result of power loss or downed trees over power lines. They are also asking people to contact 911 with concerns about emergent storm damage to ensure these areas have been reported to PSE crews, who have been working through the night.
