An estimated 3,000 to 4,000 customers are still without electric service in East Jefferson County and some could be out for a few days.

A wind storm that hit Thursday evening after 7:30 p.m. caused widespread damage and outages. Marrowstone Island and Indian Island still are without power Friday morning, Dec. 12.

Jefferson County Public Utility District 1 officials say crews are expected to work for the next few days to restore electricity service to between 3,000 and 4,000 customers.

“The crews will be working the next two days,” PUD Manager Jim Parker told the Leader Friday morning. “Port Townsend got hit with the first wave on Tuesday but it was pretty unscathed,” he said of Thursday night's storm.

Other areas experiencing outages include Shine, Port Ludlow, Quilcene and Gardiner. (See PUD outage map posted with this story).

As of 9:30 p.m. Dec. 11, the PUD estimated that 70 percent of its customers were without electric service.

Call the PUD at 385-5800 if your power is out, and be prepared to leave a detailed message.

Parker said some customers may still be without power today or longer, particularly on Marrowstone Island where a crew was dispatched to replace a pole that fell on Old Ferry Road. Once that pole is replaced, there may be other trees down and problems to solve that could take time, he said.

One problem, due to days of soaking rain: as crews got power restored in areas where the wind had blown trees into the lines, they frequently had to return to that same area as more trees fell because of ground saturation.

SCHOOL CLOSURES

The downed trees and sustained power outages led the Chimacum School District and Port Townsend School District to cancel classes today. The decision at 5:15 a.m. was to try a two-hour late start, but both districts shortly before 8 a.m. changed it to cancellation.

EXTRA CREWS TO HELP

The PUD hired two extra crews to help the PUD's two crews restore power. A crew is four people and a truck.

“We have two crews. We've had one for three days and the last one we got last night,” he said of the crews that come from a company called Michael's from Olympia and Ellensburg.

Power to Port Townsend Paper Corp. also went down during the storm Thursday evening. The mill had been getting power from a line from Clallam County. When that went down, power had to be shifted to lines running through Jefferson County's PUD, Parker said.

“I think we prepared for it as well as we could have,” Parker said of bracing earlier this week for a second storm. “It was pretty rough last night. I wish we could get people up quicker.”

Parker estimated that hiring the extra two crews and other costs associated with the outage probably has cost the PUD about $100,000 to date.

The PUD also has been investing in an automated, computerized system that helps identify when there are problems on power lines. The Supervisor Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system allows someone in the office to see when there is a problem on a line and it also allows for the person in the office to re-energize the line instead of sending out a crew to do it, Parker explained.

For a map of where the outages are in Jefferson County, as well as estimated restoration times, see

jeffpud.org.

HOOD CANAL BRIDGE

The Hood Canal Bridge was closed to vehicles at 10:53 p.m. Dec. 11 and reopened at 12:50 a.m. There were sustained winds of 50 mph, and a peak gust of 61 mph, said Claudia Bingham Baker, communications manager for Washington State Department of Transportation's Olympic Region.

The bridge handled the weather OK, Bingham Baker said after speaking Friday morning with the crew dispatched to the span last night after winds were sustained at 30 mph.

Since the east half was replaced in 2009, the stronger bridge no longer has a defined criteria for a weather-related closure, Bingham Baker said. When winds are sustained at 30 mph, an alarm signals and crews are dispatched to the bridge to see how it behaves in the wind and waves.

The concern is more for motorists than for the bridge structure, and that's what triggered the Dec. 11 closure.

"We did not close the bridge because of concern for damage to the bridge," Bingham Baker told the Leader. "We closed the bridge because drivers were being buffeted around by side winds hitting the bridge."

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

Hamlin reminds Jefferson County residents of the need to be prepared for events like these storms.

“This is the first major weather event of the winter and may not be the last. This is a good time to replenish emergency supplies that may be needed later in the winter,” he said.

(This story to be updated as more information becomes available. Leader Staff Writer Patrick J. Sullivan contributed to this story).