UPDATE: Noon, Friday, Nov. 20:

Electricity has been restored to all customers in Jefferson County as of 9:30 a.m., Friday, Nov. 20, according to Jefferson County Public Utility District officials.

If anyone knows of any customers who are still without power, spokesman Bill Graham said on Friday, they should call 360-385-8253. Graham said it is possible that a few people who might have left their homes before the outage on Tuesday could return to find their power off, although the PUD hadn't been alerted of a single customer without power.

The windstorm that hit the Northwest on Tuesday afternoon caused multiple outages because of trees and limbs falling on power lines.

After hours, customers can call 360-385-5800 and press 3 to get an on-call foreman.

Visit jeffpud.org to see an outage map, which currently shows no outages.

UPDATE: 9 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 19: People still without electricity today in Jefferson County should brace for a third night in the cold.

Although Jefferson County Public Utility District has brought in two extra crews to help it restore power after Tuesday night's punishing windstorm that left 12,000 customers in the dark, there still are more than two dozen pockets of what PUD Manager Jim Parker calls “onesies and twosies” and even a few areas with 100 people or more are out of power.

A crew from Pacific County Public Utility District was unable to assist Wednesday. Parker said a crew from Mason County Public Utility District 3 is coming today, as is a two-person crew from Clallam County PUD. The goal is to have everyone back up no later than Friday afternoon, he said.

“When it's one or two people, you still may have to replace a transformer. So do you spend your time on just one house or getting a larger group of people up?” Parker said. He said it is up to Electric Superintendent Kevin Streett to decide where to send crews as well as dispatchers.

“If a crew is out on Marrowstone and they can get one of those onesies back on the way back, they try that,” Parker said.

Parker said a number of people are coming into the office, concerned that their power is still not back up after Tuesday's major outage. He wondered whether Jefferson County agencies would have places for people to spend the night getting warm rather than facing another night in the cold.

Jefferson County Department of Emergency Management spokeswoman Keppie Keppinger said Thursday morning that there have been no requests from the public for assistance yet. Anyone who does need help tonight, can call 360-385-9368, she said, and they would see if they could assist.

Parker said he has no way of knowing which areas or which customers might not have power tonight. He noted that Puget Sound Energy and Snohomish County still have many customers out of power.

Parker also suggested that people use common sense, and if your neighbors have power and you don't, check the fuse box to be sure it's not a simple matter of switching the power back on.

For those who've already tried that, Parker said people can still call 360-385-8253. After hours, customers can call 360-385-5800 and press 3 to get an on-call foreman.

See jeffpud.org for an outage map.

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UPDATE: 5 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 18: Jefferson County PUD Manager Jim Parker said there now are three crews working to restore power in Jefferson County and fewer than 800 customers out of power tonight. Most people should be back up with electricity no later than Thursday afternoon, he said. "There may be one or two that we miss. The last ones are the hardest to get back on," Parker said. "It's been a major outage."

More than 1,000 customers in east Jefferson County – from Port Townsend to Port Ludlow and on Marrowstone Island – still are without power at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 18, after a windstorm downed trees and took out transmission lines late Tuesday throughout the region.

At the height of the storm on Tuesday afternoon, around 4:15 p.m., about 12,000 Jefferson County Public Utility District (PUD) customers had lost power.

PUD manager Jim Parker said Wednesday morning that a subcontract crew from Michels Corporation, a national contractor with a facility in Olympia, was assisting the PUD's seven linemen and two journeymen in restoring power as fast as possible, and that a second contract crew from Pacific County PUD had been requested to come help.

A PUD outage map showed scattered outages in four zip-code areas – 98325, 98339, 98358, 98368 and one unknown. The map indicates that about 1,104 customers in those areas are still without power.

High winds knocked down tree limbs and transmission lines went down in Port Townsend at Hastings and Kearney streets, in Port Ludlow and at Discovery Bay, Parker said.

The Discovery Bay power line feeds Port Townsend Paper Corp., which went dark in the afternoon and stayed dark until around midnight, Parker said.

“The paper mill came on after midnight. We got Safeway on and the hospital [Jefferson Healthcare] was our first priority initially,” Parker said. He said there was concern that the hospital would run out of fuel to run the generators used as a backup power source.

Some people in Port Townsend saw lights back on at 9:30 p.m., Tuesday while others were out until around 1 a.m.

“There are a lot of individual people out in the sticks. It's going to take awhile to get another crew,” Parker said, adding that Snohomish County's PUD was “sucking up all the crews.”

OUTAGE CALLS

Parker did urge customers to call periodically if their power is still out.

“Not every five minutes, but every four hours,” he added. “As we bring areas on we're bringing big sections so if you are off to the side, we may think you are up and running.”

To report an outage in east Jefferson County, call 360-385-8253. After hours, customers can call 360-385-5800 and press 3 to get an on-call foreman.

See jeffpud.org for an outage map.