WHATCOM COUNTY, Wash. — Puget Sound Energy officials reported dealing with power outages across their service areas around Puget Sound today, Monday, February 21st, during a high wind event. As of 6pm, it was reported 1,976 PSE customers addresses in Whatcom County were without power. By 6:40pm, that number had grown to 2,132.
The largest outage was in the Birchwood neighborhoods in Bellingham, impacting 1,947 addresses. That outage was report at 5:50pm and as of 6:35pm did not have an estimate for when power would be restored but had identified trees/vegetation as the cause.
A total of 2,991 PSE customer addresses across their entire service area were reported without power as of 6pm.
Top wind gusts reported by weather stations around Whatcom County varied widely today as reflected below.
Location Max. Gust Speed Time Bellingham Intl. Airport 54mph 10:53am Sandy Point 51mph 12:14pm Ferndale 38mph 2:04pm Maple Falls 57mph 6:24pm Blaine 40mph 1:29pm Lynden 38mph 5:44pm Acme Airport 17mph 3:30pm
A wind advisory remains in effect through 4pm tomorrow while northeast sustained winds of 30 to 40mph with gusts up to 55mph continue to be expected.
Acme has an airport?; never knew.
By 11:56pm: 690 customers affected PSE-wide. Thank you, PSE, for addressing outages in such a timely manner as per usual. I have lived many places but have never experienced the expediency of power-restoring that I experience here.