Worst Snowfall in 5 Years Blankets Puget Sound Area

The worst snowstorm in the Puget Sound area in more than five years brought an early start to the Presidents Day holiday weekend for hundreds of thousands of students and workers Friday.

The National Weather Service also warned of new problems as the region’s principal snow removal system--rain--begins falling and temperatures rise.

With little snow likely to remain on area streets past Friday afternoon, “urban flooding is possible . . . through Saturday,” the agency’s local forecast office warned.

Snow began falling Thursday evening and continued early Friday, piling up to 8 inches in the northern suburbs and on the western side of Puget Sound. Seabeck on Hood Canal, 23 miles west of Seattle, received 13 inches.

It was the heaviest snow for the area since a storm dumped up to 2 feet in December 1995. Rain following that snowfall caused dozens of roofs to collapse and led to widespread flooding.

Puget Sound Energy reported 10,000 power outages in King, Kitsap and Thurston counties. The utility said it hoped to have all power restored by midnight.

At least two people were killed and up to 23 injured when three vans carrying members of a Chinese dance troupe crashed on icy U.S. 395 south of Ritzville, in the eastern half of the state, which also was hit. And in western Washington, two traffic pileups--each involving more than a dozen vehicles--snarled traffic on Interstate 5 in the Seattle area. Injuries in those crashes were minor, officials said.

Bill Burton, a Weather Service forecaster, said the storm resulted when Arctic air pushed south from Canada and a warm, moist Pacific weather system rode over the top of it.

The next step, typically, is for the cold to give way to warmer air at ground level and for the snow to change to rain, he said.

Freezing temperatures are unusual west of the Cascades, and the Puget Sound area rarely gets more than a brief dusting of snow once or twice a winter. Aside from state highway plows and sanding trucks, most areas have little or no snow removal equipment.

Classes were canceled Friday for more than 200,000 students in public schools, including those in Seattle, nearly all the suburbs ringing the city, across the sound in Bremerton and as far as Olympia, 60 miles to the south. The University of Washington’s Seattle and Tacoma campuses were open, but its Bothell campus was closed.

Work schedules were delayed by two hours at Naval Submarine Base, Bangor, on Hood Canal, and all King County Superior Court proceedings in Seattle and Kent were canceled for the day.

Many flights were delayed and some were canceled at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, spokesman Bob Parker said. Aircraft were alternating use of the airport’s two runways so ground crews could remove a thin layer of slush. Some flights also were delayed because they had to be de-iced, he said.

Snow tires were recommended or required over all of the Cascade highway passes. Interstate 90 through Snoqualmie Pass and U.S. 2 through Stevens Pass were closed periodically for avalanche control.