Wild weather causes accidents, outages statewide
With winds reaching up to 70 mph gusts across eastern Washington, the residents at the 1800 block of Lakeside Avenue had an Evergreen tree fall onto their car as a result of the high winds that occurred last night.
High winds, poor visibility contributes to fatality in SR 17
A man died and a woman was injured Tuesday afternoon during a multiple vehicle collision on State Route 17, four miles south of Moses Lake, in the midst of gusts swirling at speeds above 60 mph.
According to a press release from the Washington State Patrol, the fatality occurred when 34-year-old Abram Cervantes from Warden, traveling south, struck an unknown vehicle.
Cervantes exited his Dodge car and walked to the northbound lane, where he was struck by an oncoming trailer truck driven by 50-year-old George Esparza from Othello.
Esparza's truck went on to hit a Nissan car driven by 32-year-old Ti Nelson, who then ran her vehicle into a fourth vehicle, a Peterbilt trailer truck driven by 62-year-old Charles Walters from Idaho, that was parked on the northbound shoulder.
Nelson was taken to Samaritan Hospital to be treated for her injuries. Coroner Jerry Jasman pronounced Cervantes dead at the scene from severe head injuries due to blunt force impact.
The collision, which closed the roadway for several hours Tuesday, is still under investigation by the Washington State Patrol.
The highway closure was one of the many consequences of a day where residents of large swaths of the state endured all sorts of weather phenomena, from high winds to hail and lightning, as well as a tornado east of Sumas near the Canadian border, in northwest Washington.
In the Columbia Basin, Gary Garnant, spokesperson for the Grant County Public Utility District said the high gusts caused downed utility poles and power lines, causing power outages that lasted as long as 12 minutes. Other outages were noted in the Larson Heights subdivision, Martin Road outside Ephrata and Royal Slope. PUD crews worked through the night trying to restore the service, he noted.
Wanapum Dam registered winds reaching as high as 70 mph, Garnant said, while the gusts at Priest Rapids blew as high as 62 mph, though no outages were recorded.
A different picture was seen in other areas of the state, as about 200,000 homes lost power Tuesday and Wednesday.
In areas such as Snohomish County, the power outages yielded the largest weather-related blackouts in two decades.
Residents of Kitsap and Jefferson counties suffered outages caused by trees falling on power lines, while the list of King and Pierce counties' customers of Seattle City Light without power reached 15,000 at the height of the storm. Scattered outages were reported in Skagit and Island counties
In Snohomish County, high winds tore part of the roof off a high school, and brush fires were spotted across the Yakima Valley. Classes continued normally at the school, while the worst fire reported to the Yakima Fire Department destroyed a fence and a shed.
Authorities throughout the state declined to call the day a catastrophe, though having the fires early in the season were a cause of concern.
"Everything is really dry and it's early in the year. It's kind of discouraging," said Brian Schaeffer Deputy Chief of the YFD.