70,000 still without power following Washington windstorm



SEATTLE -- About 70,000 households and businesses remained without power early Friday following a windstorm in western Washington that took down trees and power lines.

At their peak Thursday, gusts reached 74 mph along the coast, near 60 mph inland and 117 mph at Mount Baker, according to the National Weather Service in Seattle.

About 300,000 were without power at the peak of the storm on Thursday.

Puget Sound Energy said it had restored power to 239,000 customers. The utility reported more than 50,000 customers still in the dark as of Friday morning.


    The weekend forecast looks much calmer, according to Q13 News forecaster Erin Mayovsky.

    Friday will be mainly dry and calm. Expect a few spotty showers at our ocean beaches.  We kick off our winter season around 2:30 p.m.

    The Solstice marks the shortest day of the year and that means starting Saturday we gain a little daylight.  On average we gain about 3 minutes per day for the next 6 months.

    As we move into the overnight hours we’ll see showers pick up for the coast and the metro area. Then we’ll dry out a little for most of the day, but evening showers come racing back into the forecast for a soggy Saturday night into Sunday midday.