Power Outage Persists in Puget Sound

Road and utility crews worked around the clock Thursday to restore power to about 750,000 customers after the worst windstorm in three decades swept through Puget Sound with gale-force winds, killing at least five people.

“It’s the largest power outage we’ve ever had,” said Bill Seil, a spokesman for Puget Sound Power & Light Co., which said it had called in utility and contract crews from as far away as Portland, Ore., and British Columbia to repair lines.

The area’s major utility said 500,000 of its customers were without power, along with about 250,000 supplied by other area utilities, and it will take up to three days to restore power to many homes and businesses.

The victims of the storm included a 4-year-old boy who was killed when a tree fell on him as he was headed for his home on the Kitsap Peninsula and a 32-year-old man who was electrocuted by falling power lines, a sheriff said.

Washington Gov. Mike Lowry declared a state of emergency in response to the sudden windstorm, which lashed western Washington with hurricane-force gusts.