High winds wreak havoc in North End

Published 4:00 pm Wednesday, December 13, 2006

A wave of high winds, which peaked at 70 mph, washed through the North End Monday afternoon leaving power outages and traffic snarls in its wake.

The Hood Canal Bridge was closed at 2 p.m. due to high gusts and didn’t reopen until 7 p.m., said Washington State Department of Transportation spokeswoman Kelly Stowe.

“Part of the reason we kept it closed was because of downed power lines on (State Highway) 104, and we didn’t want to have traffic backed up,” Stowe said.

The threshold for bridge closures is winds of at least 40 mph sustained for 15 minutes or more, she said.

“People need to make sure their cars are adequately filled with gas and they have blankets, water and food,” Stowe said. “If they need to reach someone on the other side of the bridge, they need to have a back-up plan.”

About 12,500 residents and businesses lost power in North Kitsap during the storm, and Puget Sound Energy was still working to restore power Tuesday morning, PSE officials said. Power was lost between 1-5 p.m. in most areas, but electricity was expected to be restored by Tuesday evening at the latest. Neighborhoods in Hansville lost power when a tree downed powerlines at the hairpin turn on Hood Canal Drive.

Electricity wasn’t restored there until about 2 a.m. Tuesday.

The North Kitsap School District had planned for a possible delayed start time Tuesday after the storm knocked out power to schools throughout the district Monday.

Though some schools were powerless Monday, there were no cancellations other than the Kingston Junior High School/Gordon Elementary Winter Concert that night, but all schools ran on a normal schedule Tuesday, said NKSD community relations director Chris Case.

Fire stations in the area were busy, but there were no severe accidents during the storm, said North Kitsap Fire & Rescue public information officer Michele Laboda.

“They were kept busy,” she said. “But there was nothing critical that came up.”

Several roadways were closed, including Port Gamble Road and Orca Drive, Laboda said. The storm also disrupted the NKF&R Santa schedule. Monday night’s visits will be rescheduled for Dec. 19, with Santa at the Suquamish Village parking lot from 5:30-6 p.m. and at the Miller Bay Estates clubhouse from 6:15-6:45 p.m.