SEATTLE – On the 18th anniversary of the Hanukkah Eve windstorm, another series of high winds are rolling through western Washington on Saturday, knocking out power to nearly 70,000 customers. as wind gusts largely stayed within a range of 56-64 mph, with some exceptions of 85 mph and 101 mph gusts on Rainier and Crystal Mountain, respectively.
From Dec. 14-16, 2006, a historic storm system barreled through Washington. More than 1.5 million people lost power, and roughly 70% of Puget Sound Energy’s infrastructure was wiped out by winds cresting over 100 mph, according to MyNorthwest.
Ultimately, more than a dozen deaths were linked to the storm and its aftereffects. In 2015, FOX 13 spoke with a homeowner who survived the storm. He told us that he always prepares for large storms, similar to the November bomb cyclone event of this year, causing more than $11 million in damages so far. Roughly 600,000 customers lost power in that storm, many for more than four days.
“We’ve certainly beefed up our preparedness kit since then because we know if there was a citywide disaster there wouldn’t be restaurants out there,” the homeowner said. “There wouldn’t be a place to shower. We would be completely on our own.”…