By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – An estimated 2,000 Lewis County PUD customers remain without power this morning, some who have been without for more than 24 hours.
Exactly when they all will be restored is unknown, according to Alex Lane, assistant line superintendent.
Road closures from continuing falling trees and limbs hampered efforts yesterday.
“It just kept getting worse, it cascaded on us,” Lane said.
State Route 6 was shut down for a period yesterday preventing crews from making repairs in the Doty and Pe Ell area, but workers were being sent out there this morning, he said.
A crew returned to the Independence and Lincoln Creek area west of Centralia about 4 o’clock this morning, after pulling out yesterday due to the dangers of falling trees.
Those places and Winlock are the largest customer areas without power, Lane said.
“And we’ve still got a lot of little spots we’re trying to get to, but it’s a long list,” he said.
PUD crews have been working around the clock since the event began, with crews each getting four hours for sleep at a time, he said.
“They’ve all got a little rest, but they’re tired,” he said.
PUD has brought one east end crew to the west end and have made a call to Cowlitz County PUD to “see if they can spare some bodies,” Lane said.
Lane said they got a request yesterday for help from Centralia City Light but had nobody to spare.
This is as bad for this type of event as he’s seen in 30 years on the job, Lane said.
Customers can hear periodic updates when they report outages to PUD’s main phone number at 748-9261