(The Associated Press circulated the following article by Elizabeth M. Gillespie on February 7.)
SEATTLE — Most people who lost power during a weekend wind storm had their electricity back on in time to watch the Super Bowl, but utility crews were still scrambling to restore power to some customers on Monday.
One storm-related death was reported.
Passenger trains were cleared to start running again from Seattle to Vancouver, British Columbia, and from Portland, Ore., to Spokane, Wash., Monday afternoon, said Amtrak spokeswoman Vernae Graham.
But the route from Seattle to Portland was to remain shut down as a safety precaution until Tuesday evening because of a mudslide south of Tacoma.
Portland was serving as the northern terminus for Amtrak’s Los Angeles-Seattle route during the closure, and Amtrak said it was providing bus service between Seattle and Portland until the route reopened.
Gus Melonas, spokesman for Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad, said maintenance crews cleared the slide 23 miles south of Tacoma on Sunday evening, and freight trains continued running.
Late Monday morning, Puget Sound Energy spokeswoman Lynn Carlson said about 3,000 homes and businesses had no power, most of them on the Kitsap Peninsula west of Seattle. By evening, she said most of the lingering outages had been restored. “We’re just cleaning up now,” Carlson said.
At the peak of the storm on Saturday, downed trees and power lines left about 140,000 Puget Sound Energy customers with no electricity west, northwest and south of Seattle.
Puget Sound Energy, Western Washington’s largest private utility, said crews were summoned from British Columbia, Eastern Washington, Idaho, Oregon, California and Nevada to make sure as many Seahawks fans as possible could watch the Super Bowl on their own television sets Sunday.
Early Monday afternoon, Seattle City Light spokesman Larry Vogel said power had been restored to all but roughly 80 of 20,000 Seattle customers who lost power over the weekend.
North of Seattle, the Snohomish County Public Utility District said it had restored power to most of about 30,000 customers who lost power.
As the storm intensified Saturday morning, the Washington 520 floating bridge linking Seattle to its eastern suburbs was closed to traffic during 50 mph winds that gusted to 75 mph.
The draw span was opened to allow water to pass through the middle of the Lake Washington bridge, reducing the potential for damage. It reopened to traffic early Sunday.
The storm caused minor damage to the bridge’s mechanical span system and repairs were needed before it could be reopened, state transportation officials said.
The last time the bridge was shut down during a storm was in March 1999.
The mudslides kept Sound Transit’s Seattle-to-Everett commuter train from running Monday morning. Sound Transit spokesman Lee Somerstein said service was resuming north of Seattle Monday evening.
On Saturday, high water, heavy winds and a mudslide north of Seattle prompted a 48-hour shutdown of passenger rail service.
The same day, three cars of a freight train in Eastern Washington derailed near 45 miles west of Spokane, halting both freight and passenger traffic. Freight trains started running that route on Sunday, and Amtrak said it had cleared the route for passenger trains Monday.
The cause of that derailment and another in the same area in late January remained under investigation.
There was one storm-related death reported Saturday. A woman died when a tree struck the car she was driving on Washington 4 near the Cowlitz-Wahkiakum county line in southwest Washington.
The skies cleared on Sunday, and forecasters said the dry weather was expected to continue for the rest of the week.