Over 17,000 customers across the San Juans and Anacortes were without power on Wednesday morning.
FRIDAY HARBOR, Wash. — A car crash into a power pole in Anacortes knocked out power to thousands of customers Wednesday morning, including all of the San Juan Islands.
About 8:20 a.m., a car hit a Puget Sound Energy (PSE) transmission power pole, causing the transmission line to fall into distribution lines, knocking out power.
The outage cut power to 2,758 PSE customers in Anacortes. It also affected 15,071 OPALCO customers in the San Juans, because the outage impacted the substation that feeds those islands. Nearly 98% of the 15,403 customers served by OPALCO were impacted.
PSE crews will need to replace the entire power pole and assess further damage before power can be restored.
The estimated time for PSE power restoration is 2:30 p.m., but that could be later depending on the outage, PSE spokesperson Andrew Padula said. OPALCO said it advised customers that the outage could last longer than four hours.
This is a breaking story. Check back for updates.
To ensure diverse coverage and expert insight across a wide range of topics, our publication features contributions from multiple staff writers with varied areas of expertise.
