Big windstorm headed for Western Washington





First, Carole Schuehle stands outside her Newport Hills home on December 15, 2006, after a tree that came through her living room during the previous night's wind storm. Thinking that something like this could happen, she and her husband went to stay at a hotel.

less Thursday's storm could rival the Hanukkah eve storm of 2006, which caused serious damage across the Puget Sound region and left tens of thousands of people without power. Here's a look back at the impact of that storm.First, Carole Schuehle stands outside her Newport Hills home on December 15, 2006, after a tree that came through her living room during the previous night's wind storm. Thinking that something like this could happen, she and her husband went to stay at a hotel. Thursday's storm could rival the Hanukkah eve storm of 2006, which caused serious damage across the Puget Sound region and left tens of thousands of people without power. Here's a look back at the impact of ... more Photo: Meryl Schenker, Seattle Post-Intelligencer Photo: Meryl Schenker, Seattle Post-Intelligencer Image 1 of / 24 Caption Close Big windstorm headed for Western Washington 1 / 24 Back to Gallery

This will be a Thursday we will want to forget.

Strong and potentially damaging winds are on their way as a storm system moves up from California. In Northern California that storm has already cut power to thousands, increased the risk of flooding and closed schools.

Forecasters at the National Weather Service said at mid-morning Thursday thatt strong winds will develop in Grays Harbor, Thurston, Lewis and Pierce counties after 4 p.m.

Those high winds will spread throughout the rest of the Puget Sound area after 6 p.m.

Winds from the south to southwest are expected to increase to 30 to 40 mph with gusts at 60 mph. Winds will be strong from the Admiralty Inlet northward, where gusts could reach 65 mph.

Winds should start to ease after midnight.

Seattle should get winds of 28 to 36 mph with gusts of 46 mph, forecasters say.

"There will be a major blow tonight over Western Washington that will certainly cause power outages for some of you," University of Washington meteorologist Cliff Mass wrote on his blog. "This event should bring the strongest winds we have seen during the last year, but damage will be mitigated by our leafless trees and the fact that earlier windstorms have done considerable pruning of new growth and weak limbs."



And there's more bad news. Rain also will fall in Seattle on Thursday. One 10th of a inch could fall Thursday afternoon.

The National Weather Service is warning that the Seattle area and elsewhere is at an increased risk of landslide and notes that the Olympics has received up to 6 inches of rain in the last 24 hours, the North Cascades have received up to 4 inches and up to 2 inches fell in some locations in the lowlands.

The combination of soggy soil and strong winds also will likely bring down trees.

These warnings bring back memories of the Hanukkah eve windstorm of 2006. Click through the gallery above to relive that event.

In fact, winds had already picked up enough Wednesday to cause scattered outages. So get home early, secure any loose items in your yard and be prepared to go without power, perhaps for a while, as crews confront multiple outages.

"I wouldn't expect to get your power back the first evening," National Weather Service meteorolgist Danny Mercer said.

Puget Sound Energy said it has materials such as wiring, poles and transformers on hand to make repairs. The utility prioritizes responses, restoring critical services first, then looks at getting power back to the greatest number of customers as quickly as possible. It's also prepared to request mutual assistance from other Northwest utilities.

PSE advised customers to gather emergency supplies, such as extra batteries, flashlights, food and a battery-powered radio; charge phones and mobile devices now; and download its mobile outage app. It also reminded people not to touch downed power lines.

We'll have to wait until after the storm for a report on just how significant it turned out to be. But Mercer was ready to deem it major.

"It's not an every year type thing," he said.

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