Fall Storm Blasts through Port Gardner Bay, Forcing Campus Closure
Downed netting poles landed on the roof of the EvCC Early Learning Center. The poles caused the center to be closed.
In the late night hours of Friday, November 4th high winds hit large parts of Snohomish county including the EvCC campus, bringing with it blasts of heavy precipitation and leaving a path of destruction in its wake.
The storm blew over EvCC thanks to an atmospheric river, a weather term that describes a long and narrow path in the atmosphere that transports moisture from tropical regions, “like rivers in the sky.”
According to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The storm turned over garbage cans, signage and left leaves en masse all over campus, along with broken tree limbs and downed trees. Barrier netting poles along the southeast corner of the City of Everett’s Legion Park Golf Course that usually provide safety for the Early Learning Center’s building and occupants from flying golf balls, were left shattered on the roof while more loomed overhead.
Ultimately, the storm forced the campus closure until Monday, November 7th. The closure was mainly due to a campus power outage as reported to students and staff via the “EvCC Emergency Alert” Saturday morning.
Winds reached gusts of more than 50 mph and left power out for more than 190,000 Snohomish PUD customers, including local businesses and major hospitals, as a result of fallen trees and snapped poles.
High waters brought a glut of debris down the Ebey slough where WSDOT worked through the weekend to untwist the matt of stumps, logs, limbs and even a man-made hunting blind, waiting to be pushed beyond the bridges pier supports beneath, slowing traffic in the area, as work crews took up the alternate-use lane on the right side of the eastbound lanes of US2 trestle.
Snohomish County PUD continued to work tirelessly, along with the aid of crews from utility districts coming from as far as Oregon, to assist in restoring power to waiting customers. As of Wednesday November 9th PUD announced that their progress had reached outages of less than six thousand customers still without power according to an update on their Facebook page, one of several sources they provide to report and receive power outage information.
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