BY MICHAELA MARX WHEATLEY,

JEFF VANDERFORD

AND SPENCER WEBSTER

South Whidbey Record

BAYVIEW — Getting used to something isn’t the same as liking it.

The second windstorm of the season was brief and strong, but not powerful enough to ruin the day for most South Enders on Monday.

“It’s still a pain. But we were ready,” said Frank Parra, owner of Sebo’s Do-It-Center on Bayview Corner.

During recent storms, the Bayview area has become notorious for being one of the first neighborhoods to lose power and one of the last to get it back.

Winds began to pick up just before 4 a.m. on Veterans Day while most islanders were sound asleep. Power went out multiple times between 4:30 and 8 a.m. in Bayview and at least eight other areas, according to Puget Sound Energy spokeswoman Dorothy Bracken.

“Outages on Whidbey Island were scattered as individual transformers became damaged by tree branches or limbs falling on them,” she said. “As of 4 p.m. Monday 148 customers still had no service.”

“The island wasn’t as affected as the mainland and we had several crews ready to go so interruptions weren’t as severe,” Bracken said.

PSE reported a total of 77,000 homes and business customers lost power in the company’s coverage area, mainly to the north and south in Whatcom and Thurston counties.

All power was restored by

10 p.m. Monday night.

When business owners and employees arrived at Bayview Corner they had no way to know if it was a prolonged outage or just a fluke. A few geared up for the worst.

“We set up two 20-kilowatt generators and opened at

8 a.m.,” said Parra at Sebo’s.

But it was quiet at the store. The usual rush for batteries, gas lamps and generators didn’t happen.

“People didn’t panic too bad this time,” he said.

However, that was probably because the power was back on in many homes before the day had started for most, he added.

Next door at Casey’s Red Apple, employees and managers also took the outage in stride.

After last winter, power outages are part of the routine, manager Pam Kirby said.

“Everybody gets in the mode,” Kirby said. “We have a generator that keeps us going. We get our plastic ready to cover up the refrigerator units, we bring water and gas lamps up front.”

“This time was a piece of cake,” Kirby added.

The folks at Neil’s Clover Patch Cafe were less relaxed. The power outage cut right into their breakfast business.

“It always hurts,” owner Neil Colburn said. “So here we are, trying to put $4,000 of food away with headlights taped to our foreheads.”

The cafe closed down until mid-morning. Because the eatery has a fully electrical kitchen, a huge generator would be needed to keep it going and that’s a luxury that the family-owned cafe can’t afford.

“I just know the minute I spent the $25,000 for the generator, we would never have a windstorm again,” Colburn said.

Colburn suspects a problem in the Bayview substation is the real reason behind Bayview’s vulnerability for outages.

“The lights are on in Langley and the lights are on in Freeland,” he said.

“The Bayview substation has issues. I don’t know what they are, but I don’t like it,” Colburn added.

No major damage due to fallen trees or debris was reported this time. Fire District 3 personnel had heard the news of the storm’s impending arrival and were prepared for whatever Mother Nature would bring.

They were ready, but the phones stayed silent.

At around 6:45 a.m., Deputy Fire Chief Mike Cotton responded to a tree that had fallen near Mutiny Bay. He also received reports of tree branches in power lines.

After clearing those, a few reports came in that transformers had blown and were on fire.

“When we got to those scenes, there were no flames and lights were on in the neighborhoods,” he said. “This was like the storm that wasn’t.”

While South Whidbey was largely spared, the wind was intense in other areas across the state.

Johnny Burg, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Seattle, said the highest wind gust reported was 97 mph about five miles east of Mount Baker and 92 mph at the entrance to the Straits of Juan de Fuca.

“It was a good storm,” he said.

“On Whidbey, the Naval Air Station in Oak Harbor reported a 70 mph peak at 7:37 a.m. though their highest sustained reading was 51 mph,” Burg said.

Berg said the weather should be wet and windy for the rest of the week.

“Breezy, but nothing like Monday,” Burg said.