Merlin Halverson, a county fire chief, said a motorist had been killed on Tuesday near the town of Monroe when a rain-soaked tree fell from a cliff onto the driver’s vehicle.
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Governor Jay Inslee’s emergency proclamation covers all Washington counties, allowing state officials to increase aid to clean up storm damage.
Fallen trees were responsible for the deaths of at least three people in Washington. Avista is reporting about 142,000 customers are without power as of 9:00 a.m. Wednesday morning.
Another woman died after a tree fell on her vehicle on Highway 904 about 15 miles southwest of Spokane, according to the Washington State Patrol.
Energy company Avista Corp. said more than 136,000 customers had lost power as of Tuesday night around Spokane and in Northern Idaho.
An estimated 700 miles of overhead power lines were damaged by the wind storm, the company said. “Crews are working around the clock to restore power to customers impacted by Tuesday’s damaging windstorm”, a message on the PSE website reads.
Winds up to 113 kilometers per hour (70 mph) blew in the Spokane area of eastern Washington, where schools remained closed.
Winds were so strong that a dust storm lowered visibility to a quarter of a mile on Tuesday afternoon in a few areas around Spokane, according to an NWS trained spotter. The Snohomish County Public Utility District tweeted that about 130,000 of its customers lacked power. The Spokane Police Department said they were called on Tuesday afternoon to reports a tree had knocked down power lines and had hit a woman.
The National Weather Service says Wednesday’s winds are caused by the jet stream interacting with the mountains.
Department of Transportation officials announced Thursday that U.S. Highway 2 between Skykomish and the summit at Stevens Pass will remain closed to traffic through the weekend and likely through Wednesday as crews work to fix a bridge damaged by the storm.
The Washington Emergency Management Division reported major flood levels at the Stillaguamish River at Granite falls with water on the roads and flooding expected in the Silvana areas near Arlington on Wednesday.
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The storm dumped over a foot of snow in a few parts of the Plains and winds created snow drifts several feet high.
