Storm's damage far less than feared; power restored for most around Seattle

More than 2,000 customers around Seattle remained without power Sunday as a storm packing 50-mph wind gusts and rain caused far less damage than expected.

The storm had knocked out electricity to tens of thousands of homes and businesses across six counties when it hit Saturday night, but most of those outages had been restored.

Puget Sound Energy spokeswoman Terri-Ann Betancourt said about 2,200 customers were still without power Sunday morning, but all power was expected to be restored in time for the Seahawks game at 1:05 p.m. PT.  The utility brought in extra crews to handle the predicted damage, she said..

The storm system, which also spawned two tornadoes in Oregon on Friday, was forecast to bring hurricane-force winds to Seattle and the surrounding suburbs, but it ultimately tracked farther north and caused far less damage than feared.

Seattle streets were littered with leaves, but few branches came down, said Ellen Pepin, a spokeswoman for Seattle Public Utilities. She said the city received scattered reports of minor flooding and pooling in low-lying areas, but that’s normal during any significant rainstorm.

“It doesn’t look like there’s much cleanup to do,” Pepin said. “We were happy that everyone was prepared, that the city was prepared very well. Everyone is glad things were safe and houses stayed dry.”

As the storm tracked north away from populated areas on Saturday night, the National Weather Service in Seattle called it a “difficult forecast,” and said it was better to have warned residents about the potential danger than to have underplayed the risk.

Before Friday's two tornadoes in Oregon's Tallamook County, there had been only four tornadoes on record since 1950 there, said weather.com senior meteorologist Jonathan Erdman. The last occurred on Sep. 18, 1997.