The fury which was the wind storm that swept through Ferndale and surrounding region last night packed several punches but no knockouts.
This morning, December 7th, began with several localized outages in the Ferndale area, the largest impacting over 300 Puget Sound Energy customers in the Sandy Point area. The other outages accounted for less than 50 PSE customers in the dark.
The gusts began climbing above 40 MPH just before 3pm yesterday and by 6pm were exceeding 60 MPH regularly. Two substantial gusts topping 80 MPH were recorded in Ferndale about 7:30pm and 8pm. It was not until after 1am this morning that the winds began to lose their strength. But gusts stayed above 40 MPH until after 3am.
Neighbors in Ferndale awoke to find, except as mentioned above, their power still on. Roads were covered with lots of debris and in one location blocked by a fallen tree and sagging power lines.
Thornton Road has been closed to through traffic in the 2700 block (between Church Road and Olson Road) as the result of a fallen tree in the road and sagging power lines (see photo below). Workers were on the scene early this morning. No estimation has been given for when the road would reopen. Parents and school buses heading to the schools in the area were forced to detour 3 miles around the closure.
