Wind Cyclone leaves a mess of East King County and other areas

Tuesday night’s cyclone wind bomb leaves areas in Washington without power and with large amounts of infrastructure damage, causing problems for many people.

On Nov. 19 King County was struck by a bomb cyclone that formed off the coast and dragged winds from Eastern Washington and from the Cascades. The night-long storm left a large majority of East King County without power for days and large amount of damage from vegetation.  

Some less-populated areas in Seattle and Bainbridge Island and further south towards the towns of Yelm and Eatonville in Pierce County have also lost power.  

The National Weather Service told King 5 News that the wind was “possibly record breaking” due to the wind reaching over 70 mph.  

5 people from Seattle have been hospitalized and 2 women have died. One victim from the city of Bellevue was killed by a tree falling on her house Tuesday night. The second victim was from the city of Lynnwood who was also struck by a fallen tree in a homeless encampment that same night.  

Throughout East King County many trees have fallen, damaging electric lines, transformers, houses, vehicles and roads. Wednesday morning cities were full of construction crews removing the storm debris and analyzing the damage done.  

As of Nov. 21, Puget Sound Energy (PSE) announced that 1,159 outages were reported, leaving 247,580 people without electricity. Many businesses like gas stations have been closed. The few gas stations that are still open have been running low on gas and are asking customers to only load up $20 to save gas for other customers. PSE has informed that electricity should be fully restored either Saturday Nov. 23 or Monday Nov. 25.  

Alyssa Silva is one of the residents that was told that her power should be restored by Saturday.   

Silvia works in the cafeteria of Evergreen Hospital in Kirkland. Although she has lost electricity where she lives, her job is still at full function from heating to the internet.  

“There has been in an influx of costumers since the storm,” Silvia tells The Ledger. Since the beginning of the outage the hospital cafeteria has seen a huge wave of people coming in, according to Silvia. The large majority are seen charging their phones and computers while coming in to buy a premade warm meal.  

Evergreen Hospital isn’t the only place that has seen people recharging their electronics. Places like Bellevue Square mall has also seen people overcrowding lounges and tables. At times, there are people even sitting on the ground near outlets to complete work or schoolwork, which caused the internet to be slower and crash briefly before being restored due to the traffic.  

Grocery stores have also been hotspots for people to recharge their electronics. QFC in Redmond has customers lining up against the walls to charge their electronics while shopping for premade food. Nonperishable and premade food products have been selling out due to high demand. Similarly, fast food places that are still open have been overworked due to the large number of customers.  

Some residents have booked hotel rooms or have crashed at loved one’s homes with electricity or even at their workplaces until the issue is resolved. Laura Audrey Wen, a senior of DigiPen Institute of Technology has been camping in her school since Wednesday night to complete schoolwork.  

“Digipen told us that they will allow us to stay until our power is restored. Many students took the offer like me. I might stay till Monday if the power doesn’t come back,” Wen said.  

Wen is hoping to return home soon in time for Thanksgiving.  

As PSE rushes to restore power before the Holidays begin this week, East King County residents must wait patiently until power is fully restored to all homes and businesses within the affected areas.