Originally published Sunday, October 5, 2008 at 12:00 AM

Windstorm cuts power to thousands

Thousands of homes and businesses lost power Saturday afternoon after gusts of up to 40 mph knocked tree limbs into overhead power lines.

Seattle Times staff

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STEVE RINGMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Pedestrians on the sidewalk let the wind blow them up a small hill on Seattle's Blanchard Street at First Avenue during Saturday's windstorm.

Thousands of homes and businesses lost power Saturday afternoon after gusts of up to 40 mph knocked tree limbs into overhead power lines.

Seattle City Light reported that some 10,000 customers in and near the city were affected. Outages were reported in the Greenwood, Magnolia, Roosevelt, Lake Forest Park, Normandy Park, Burien, SeaTac, and Madrona neighborhoods.

About 11,000 customers in the Snohomish County Public Utility District lost power at some point. "Most of these have been pretty short-lived," said spokesman Neil Neroutsos.

Kitsap County customers of Puget Sound Energy also were hit hard with scattered outages, said spokeswoman Dorothy Bracken. Whatcom, Skagit and parts of King counties also had outages, she said, speculating that the total affected was in the low thousands.

Such disruptions are normal this time of year, Bracken said. Trees still have their leaves, which get wet and heavy in rains, making branches prone to snap.

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