Giant Outage Affects Thousands In Bonney Lake

BONNEY LAKE-SUMNER, WA — The eastern part of Bonney Lake is part of a large power outage affecting 2,534 customers around the eastern part of Lake Tapps, Puget Sound Energy reports. Though PSE reported the outage’s estimated restoration time was 3:30 p.m. Monday, it is still listed on the PSE outage map.

An outage in Orting is affecting 6,870 customers, and two in South Prairie are affecting a total of 763 customers, according to PSE.

PSE said that the cause of all outages is being investigated, but they are likely due to the high rain and winds that caused tens of thousands of customers all over Western Washington to lose power Monday.

No outages are reported in Sumner as of 4:15 p.m., though an outage in Auburn is still affecting 258 customers, PSE said.

Intense winds and rains from an atmospheric river have mostly calmed down in Bonney Lake and Sumner as of 4 p.m. Monday, according to the National Weather Service. After heavy rains and winds of up to 30 miles an hour, Bonney Lake is mostly cloudy, with southwest wind of six miles an hour.

Sumner is mostly clear, with southwest winds of six miles an hour. Both towns were previously under both wind advisories and flood warnings, but as of 4 p.m. Monday, only Sumner is under a wind advisory until Monday at 7 p.m., the National Weather Service reports.

Both towns report a 40% chance of rain Tuesday, according to the NWS.

218 Avenue East along Lake Tapps remains closed due to a downed tree, according to Pierce County Public Works. Roads in Sumner remain open,, though Pierce County reports street flooding along 89th Ave Ct E. and 136th Ave. E. See here for a list of road closings.

The Sumner Link Trail is back open, but the sections under the 142nd bridge and milepost 4 between 16th and 24th streets remain closed as of 10:20 a.m. Monday, according to tweets from the city. A downed tree caused Valley Avenue between 54th and 70th Avenue East in Fife to close in both directions Monday morning. All Puyallup parks and trails remain closed.

ALERT: Please avoid Valley Avenue from 54th to 70th Avenue East in Fife. We've got a tree down and the road is closed. Traffic is blocked in both directions. There's local access only, alternate routes are required. We apologize for the inconvenience! pic.twitter.com/3wa4ipAPjq
— CityofFife (@fife_washington) November" class="redactor-linkify-object">https://twitter.com/fife_washi... 15, 2021

Despite school closures around the state, the Sumner-Bonney Lake School District did not report any closures.

The atmospheric river wreaked havoc across the state throughout Monday. In Pierce County, numerous roads were closed, though as of Monday afternoon most roads are open, and the county simply recommends caution around South Hill.

The situation in Skagit County was especially dire, where residents of Hamilton and Forks were evacuated Monday morning, according NBC News 5. The U.S. Coast Guard said Monday that it was helping evacuate residents west of Forks, near Highway 110. The Whatcom County Sheriff's Office also reports a rescue of stranded residents near Everson.

Northbound I-5 in Bellingham was blocked for several hours due to downed trees and a partial landslide on the roadway. State Rte. 539 is also closed, while Sumas police near the Canadian border reportedly told residents there is no reasonably safe way to get to Bellingham, NBC News said.

The National Weather Service's Seattle office reported winds of up to 58 miles an hour at Sea-Tac Airport at around 10:30 a.m. Monday, 65 miles an hour in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, 55 mph at Port Townsend, and 50 in Port Angeles.

The NWS Seattle reported record rain levels at the Nooksack River at Cedarville, the Samish River near Burlington, the Calawah River near Forks, and the Bogachiel River near La Push.
Experts are providing a number of safety tips for flooding and outages, including unplugging all electronics, discussing and planning an evacuation procedure, keeping important documents and valuables in a water-tight safe deposit box, and checking to see if you're eligible for flood insurance.

Related:

• Coast Guard Helps Evacuate Residents From Flooding Near Forks
• High Winds Knock Out Power For Thousands In King County Monday