Power outages hit South End

A late fall windstorm resulted in several small, scattered power outages that began at 6:52 p.m Wednesday until 1 a.m. Thursday.

The blackouts, caused by falling trees, affected 105 customers in Clinton — including Scatchet Head. Forty people were left without power in Freeland, and 100 customers in Oak Harbor, said Walt Blackford, Puget Sound Energy’s representative in Freeland,

“A combination of factors kept the numbers of those suffering blackouts low,” Blackford said. “We didn’t get the brunt of this particular storm, and the work done by PSE crews the past few years kept the numbers down.”

He added that, system-wide, PSE crews responded to 400 locations since Sunday and restored power to 70,000 customers in Western Washington.

At the Ace Hardware store in Freeland, manager Cari Gerow said people have been stocking up on batteries, propane, kerosene lanterns and more batteries.

“There’s been a lot of interest in generators, but we haven’t sold that many due to the cost factor,” she said. “But we have a small 1,200-watt generator that would at least keep the lights and TV going. I’m taking one home tonight to test it, to see if the refrigerator will get power.”

She said that people are already looking toward winter, buying snow shovels, ice scrapers, ice melt mix and faucet covers.

“We’re stocking up early this year because we don’t want to get caught short,” Gerow said.

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