— by Lin McNulty —
A High Wind Warning remains in effect for our local area until approximately midnight, with NE winds from 20 – 40 mph and gusts to 60 forecast.
OPALCO began to experience an effect of those winds as power outages began at 9:50 a.m. this morning, beginning with Beach Haven. Fallen branches and limbs caused around 750 OPALCO members county-wide to experience a day with no power.
As of press time, power has been restored, but there are still several hours of high winds anticipated.
Following is a timeline from OPALCO on the outages so far:
Tuesday, January 10th 2017, 3:30 pm: Power has been restored in the Deer Harbor, Pole Pass and Bell Island areas. Approximately 750 members were affected by the various outages throughout San Juan County today.
Tuesday, January 10th 2017, 2:45 pm: Power has been restored to the East side of Orcas Island and to Blakely Island. The outage affecting the Dolphin Bay, West Beach and Crow Valley areas has also been restored. The crew is on the way to restore the outage affecting Deer Harbor and Bell Island.
Tuesday, January 10th 2017, 2:15 pm: Some power should be restored to the East side of Orcas Island at this time. Approx. time of restoration for the Blakely Island/Orcas Island east side outage is 4:00 pm. They will then move on to restore power to the Crow Valley/Dolphin Bay/West Beach areas of Orcas, then they will move on to restore the power to Deer Harbor/Arcady Rd and Bell Island. High winds and branches are the cause of these outages.
Tuesday, January 10th, 2017, 1:20PM: The outage is affecting approx. 470 members at this time in the areas of Blakely Island and on Orcas Island in the areas of Deer Harbor, Crow Valley, and Olga.
Tuesday, January 10th 12:45 pm: The power outage on Orcas Island starts at the bottom of Flaherty’s Hill through Rosario, Olga, Obstruction Pass and Blakely Island. The crew is on site, there is no estimated time of restoration.
Tuesday, January 10th 12:30 pm: We are currently experiencing an outage in the Rosario, Palisades ares of Orcas Island. There are reports of lines down. The crew has been dispatched and we will update as more information becomes available.
Tuesday, January 3rd 11:15am: All power has been restored to the Beach Haven area of Orcas Island.
Tuesday, January 3rd 9:50am: We are currently experiencing an outage in the Beach Haven area of Orcas Island. The crew has been dispatched. We will update with more information as it becomes available.
The National Weather Service issues the following warning today:
… High Wind Warning in effect until midnight PST tonight…
The National Weather Service in Seattle has issued a High Wind Warning… which is in effect until midnight PST tonight. The Wind Advisory is no longer in effect.
* Wind… northeast wind 20 to 40 mph with gusts to 60 mph.
* Some affected locations… the winds will affect western Whatcom County mainly from around Bellingham north including the immediate coast of Puget Sound… Lummi Island… and the San
Juan Islands.
* Timing… winds will probably peak this evening and ease tonight.
* Impacts… winds this strong can break tree limbs… topple small trees… and cause scattered power outages.
Precautionary/preparedness actions…
High winds can topple trees onto roads, vehicles, and rooftops. Falling trees or large branches have been known to cause fatalities during windstorms. Downed power lines can cause power outages lasting a couple of hours or longer.
Stay warm and safe.
For those wanting to see where outages are located, OPALCO has a cool new outage map: https://www.opalco.com/outages/
Hover over your area to more outage details.
The above outage updates were available in real time on the OPALCO Outage Line at 360-376-3599. And power was restored quickly in each case. Danged well done, OPALCO!
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“We love OPALCO, oh, yes we do!
We love OPALCO and we’ll be TRUE!
And when your not fixing us, we’re blue,
OPALCO we love you!”
I pray for your safety every time the power goes out. And then some.
THANK YOU!
Maggie
The OPALCO repair crews are AWESOME! During the recent storms the power was out several times here on Blakely Is. Not only was it restored quickly but in one instance the crew was here all night putting things right. “Thank you” just isn’t enough.