Restoring power a "slow go" for thousands of residents

The job of restoring power to tens of thousands of Puget Sound residents who are surviving without heat or light is proceeding painfully slowly as crews encounter downed lines that are more snarled than they've ever seen.

And a mild storm that's expected to hit the region Wednesday could cause more delays and problems. Some residents, who already have spent five nights without power since last week's severe windstorm, are preparing to spend the holidays in the dark.

The death toll also continues to rise: Four family members were found dead in Burien and a fifth was rushed to the hospital in critical condition, all likely victims of carbon-monoxide poisoning. Authorities said the family, the youngest of whom was 14, had been running a generator in a closed garage attached to their house.

At least 12 people have died as a result of the storm.

Early this morning, a family of five was taken to a local hospital to be treated for carbon monoxide poisoning after burning coal or charcoal in a small stove in their Shoreline living room, said Shoreline Fire Department spokeswoman Melanie Granfors.

Around the region, nearly 170,500 people were still without power Monday night. Some of the worst-hit areas were on the Eastside, including Bellevue, Mercer Island, Woodinville, North Bend, Duvall and Carnation. Elsewhere, south Burien, Shoreline, parts of West Seattle and Seward Park remained dark.

By 4 p.m. Monday, Puget Sound Energy had 150,000 customers without power, and progress was far slower than hoped. In the Snohomish County Public Utility District, 5,500 customers remained without power. And Seattle City Light was on pace to restore power to only half the number it hoped Monday, leaving 15,000 in the dark. The utilities hope to restore just about everyone by the week's end but warn that isolated problems could continue beyond that.

"I'm afraid that this is going to go on much longer than people think," said Christopher Heimgartner, a customer service and energy delivery officer with the Seattle utility. "It's a very, very tough, slow go."

Heimgartner said crews are accustomed to replacing spans of wire that have been damaged in one or two spots. But crews are often finding six or seven separate areas of damage, creating much more work. Crews with other utilities are encountering similar delays.

National Weather Service meteorologist Gary Schneider said Wednesday's storm is expected to bring 10- to 20-mph winds in Seattle and perhaps up to 30 mph in some outlying areas: "For December, that's completely normal."

But this is not a typical week.

"If we get even moderate winds, we may find quite a few of those trees that were just on the edge may tip over, and we may have a bunch of additional outages," Heimgartner said.

Authorities were also warning people to beware of downed lines that may become live — and deadly — as power is switched back on. A Gig Harbor man and his dog died Sunday when the man stepped on a downed line hidden in a tree.

In Bellevue, where about 40 percent of the power remains out, a 14-strong crew worked all day Monday to fix several hundred feet of fallen power lines near Bellevue Community College. Most of the crew was from Hamlin Electric Co., based in Fort Morgan, Colo., and arrived in town with their trucks Sunday.

The work would normally have taken two hours, but the fallen wires connected to an underground line that snaked under the street and to a substation nearby, said Rich Adams, a Puget Sound Energy engineer. The crew spent hours reconnecting the line and placing plastic pipe over three aluminum cables that run from a utility pole to the ground.

"This is an extra-messy job," Adams said.

In Ames Lake in East King County, the power outage has forced the Faultersack family to experiment with their kerosene cooker and barbecue.

"We've done barbecued cookies and pan-fried cookies; we've gotten highly inventive with our cooking," said Beth Faultersack, a mother of two. "For Christmas, we're debating whether to have barbecued turkey or steak. We're going to have barbecued mashed potatoes for sure."

Neighbors Wayne and Doris Littlefield are just thankful they will get to celebrate Christmas after a tree crashed through their trailer-home bedroom while they were in bed, coming to rest just a few feet away. Their roof is now covered with tarpaulin. Indoors, they've been wrapping their pet turtle B.T. in a towel each night to keep him warm.

The Ames Lake residents are members of the tiny Tanner Electric Cooperative, which has 4,300 customers in Ames Lake, North Bend and Anderson Island. Tanner was founded 70 years ago because no one else would supply power to then-remote North Bend.

The co-op — which is keeping its North Bend office open with a generator — usually turns to bigger utilities for assistance when there's a problem. But that's not possible now, even though three-quarters of its customers are without power.

"The guys' challenge is to be done and be home in time for Christmas," said general manager Steve Walter, a former lineman who's been out with crews repairing lines himself and who can empathize with the plight of fellow co-op members. "My home is awful cold right now."

Many are taking advantage of shelters around the region.

Joan Evans, 77, of Bellevue, sat in the North Bellevue Community Center emergency shelter Monday afternoon and worked on a quilt. She lives in the condominium next door and has been without power since Thursday night's storm.

She has been going home to sleep at night and spends her days in the shelter. She was contemplating staying at the shelter Monday night.

"I wear my coat and keep having to wrap up more and more to sleep comfortably in my bed," she said. "My apartment is getting colder and colder."

For many hotel operators, business is booming.

In Bellevue, Courtyard by Marriott general manager Rick Tupper said his hotel — one of the few places in the city that never lost power — was fully booked since within an hour of opening early Friday, and the phone hasn't stopped ringing since.

By breakfast time, there was an hourlong line for Starbucks snaking through the lobby and up the stairs. The lobby became filled with children playing hand-held games and adults on laptops. By Sunday, they'd run out of eggs, sausages, bacon and other breakfast fare.

"Then a bride called desperately trying to book a wedding and reception for 250 people, because the Columbia Winery was closed," he said. "We couldn't put something together: We didn't have the food. But we heard she did do it somewhere else."

Nick Perry: 206-515-5639 or nperry@seattletimes.com

Times staff reporters Cheryl Phillips, Ashley Bach, Sherry Grindeland, Sonia Krishnan, Manuel Valdes

and Peyton Whitely

contributed to this report.