Northwest freezes as rare blizzard roars through

By George Tibbits

Associated Press

Published: Tuesday, Nov. 23 2010 10:00 a.m. MST

Winds gusting to 65 mph made matters worst by cutting off power Monday for tens of thousands of utility customers in Western Washington. Puget Sound Energy said most of its 90,000 outages were in Kitsap County. That number was down to 64,000 by 6 a.m. Tuesday, but spokeswoman Gretchen Aliabadi couldn't say when everyone would have their power turned back on.

Two people were killed Monday when the car they were in slid on a snowy road at Cowiche near Yakima and collided with another car, the State Patrol said. In Tacoma, a Pierce County Transit bus slid down a steep hill and overturned with about 20 people were aboard on Monday. Twelve were taken to hospitals, but no serious injuries were reported.

Temperatures should start to moderate Wednesday and there's a chance of rain on Thanksgiving Day in Western Washington, although it could start as snow. Eastern Washington temperatures are forecast to remain well below freezing into the weekend, forecasters said.

Associated Press photographer Ted Warren in Tacoma and writers Phuong Le and Donna Gordon Blankinship in Seattle and Nicholas K. Geranios in Spokane contributed to this report.

Get The Deseret News Everywhere

Subscribe

Mobile

RSS