Strong winds cause widespread outages in western Washington

STATE OF WASHINGTON – Thousands in western Washington are suffering power outages after an early morning storm brought strong winds to the region.

Strong wind warnings are in effect Monday for the Strait, Pacific Coast, San Juan/Island County, Bellingham/Mt. Vernon and the eastern slopes of the Cascades. Winds will gust to 40-60 mph at times and are expected to gradually decrease throughout the afternoon and evening.

CLICK HERE FOR FULL WEATHER FORECAST

According to Puget Sound Energy's outage map, nearly 300 active outages affected over 32,000 people in Puget Sound.

Snohomish County residents are experiencing similar outages, affecting nearly 20,000 people, according to their outage map.

Mason County's outage map shows that residents there are also affected by outages. As of 2:45 p.m., over 35,000 people were affected by over 900 outages

As of 9 a.m., rainfall in Forks was 1.86 inches and winds were gusting to 61 mph. There was a wind gust of 59 miles per hour in Aberdeen. Oak Harbor experienced a wind gust of 55 miles per hour. The Taholah School District was closed due to a power outage.

According to Washington State Ferries, the 2 p.m. ferry from Port Townsend and the 2:45 p.m. ferry from Coupeville were canceled due to high winds and rough seas.