It’s deja vu all over again. Another round of high winds swept across the South End Friday and Saturday morning, toppling large trees and cutting power to thousands on the South End.

Puget Sound Energy customers from Race Road south lost power just after midnight Saturday. PSE reported 34,000 customers in the region were without power during the weekend windstorm.

On the mainland, it was worse: Snohomish Public Utility District said approximately 100,0000 customers lost power.

The windstorm hit Whidbey late Friday and into Saturday morning. Gusts of 68 mph were reported on the Smith Island weather station just off Whidbey Island. Greenbank had gusts of 65 mph, Polnell Point had winds reaching 47 mph, while Whidbey Island Naval Air Station reported gusts up to 53 mph.

Homes and vehicles across the South End were damaged when huge trees crashed to the ground. Ground saturated with water from recent rain, and trees weakened by earlier windstorms, were cited as factors.

It was a close call for Dan Brown and his family on Mortland Drive in Scatchet Head. A huge 40-foot hemlock tree fell across the road, through a fence and then on top of a Geo Metro Friday night, turning it into a convertible.

Fortunately, the car acted as a brake and prevented the tree from hitting the ground.

Good thing, too, because about 20 feet away was a truck camper occupied by Brown’s son and daughter-in-law. The tree’s tip cracked the cab-over section, broke the window and sprayed glass all over the camper’s interior.

“They were very lucky,” Brown said as he repaired his broken fence.

“It sounded like a bomb had exploded in our yard. Hemlocks have no extended roots and that, coupled with all the rain, allowed it to fall. Cedars and fir trees don’t have the same problem because the roots go deeper,” he said.

A 36-year resident of the area, Brown said he’s never experienced wind and rain conditions this extreme on the island.

“Hemlocks often look solid, but they can be rotten inside,” he added.

And the Geo? “My son is going to chop it off and turn it into a ‘Baja bug.’”

Emergency crews from Island County Public Works and Fire District 3 were swamped with calls for fallen trees and downed power lines.

“Whidbey Island is always on the forefront of these storms. The South End and Snohomish County were really clobbered,” said Dennis Smedsrun, a PSE spokesman.

“Instead of just branches falling down, we were seeing entire trees uprooted. Many were at least two feet in diameter,” he said. “It was just nasty.”

More stormy weather predicted

The National Weather Service in Seattle issued a high wind watch Monday that was expected to stay in effect through Tuesday evening, after The Record went to press.

A cold front moving across the region was expected to bring sustained westerly winds between 35 to 45 mph, with gusts of 55 to 65 mph. The National Weather Service also warned of snow falling in the region on Wednesday.

“Mother Nature is not done with us,” Smedsrun said.

Whidbey Island, and the South End in particular, has been hammered by repeated windstorms and weather-related power outages in recent months.

During last weekend’s big blow, Smedsrun said there were four transmission spans that went down and affected South Whidbey. However, the north end came through fine this time. Coupeville did not lose power, but poritions Oak Harbor lost electricity Friday night.

Power was restored in the Greenbank area mid-morning Saturday, late Saturday afternoon in the central Freeland and later that night in the more rural areas of the South End. Some residents had power in time for the Seahawks playoff football game.

Others on the extreme southern tip of Whidbey did not have electricity until Sunday morning.

Some residents said the repeated outages were growing tiresome.

“What is getting old is what we are now calling ‘camping on Whidbey.’ With no power we have no alternative heat, so we get out the camp stove to heat water and bundle up to keep warm,” said Dann Schroader of Langley.

“We’ve gotten to be old pros at getting our cars moved away from the huge trees. We’ve actually lost four windshields in our cars from falling tree branches this fall and winter,” he added. “We would have lost two more this time if we hadn’t moved the cars.”

“The scariest part of the storm was about 12:30 Friday night when my son and I were looking out our front window. A large branch crashed onto the roof just over our heads and landed upright in front of the window. Neither of us were hurt but it was hard sleeping the rest of the night with all of the branches hitting the house,” he said.

Officials agreed that bigger trees did seem to be coming down more frequently.

Jon Beck, assistant fire chief for Fire District 3, has been on call for every windstorms since early November

“We are getting pretty good at handling these emergencies,” he said.

Beck said the damage in this windstorm was worse than previous storms.

“We saw bigger, taller trees coming down this time. And we were seeing more falling into homes,” Beck said. “These are big evergreens you normally wouldn’t see fall.”

Bill Oakes, director of Island County Public Works, agrees.

“As the ground becomes more saturated, it does make the more stout, healthy trees susceptible to falling down in these strong winds,” Oakes said.

The weather kept county crews busy.

“We set up an operation center Friday night until Saturday afternoon. We were fully staffed with some extra non-road-shop people,” Oakes said.

“Crews were clearing trees from roads and setting up roadblocks around downed powerlines all night long, until PSE crews could get there,” he said.

The windstorms are also hitting the county’s bottom line.

“We used up our emergency money for 2006 and we are tapping into the 2007 emergency budget,” Oakes said.

“Most of the damage was from downed trees and power lines. However, we did see some minor flooding on the north end of the island and on Camano Island, and mud slides in the Ledgewood Beach area,” he said.

Oakes said this is definitely a “winter to remember.”

PSE criticized by residents

With yet another outage, PSE has once again been the subject of criticism.

“I have a local business that can’t operate without power,” said Kimberly Cerra, who lives on June Beach off East Harbor Road.

“During the last few months, with all the power outages I have lost thousands of dollars in hours I couldn’t work due to lack of electricity,” she said.

“I feel very strongly that it is long overdue for PSE to put the power lines underground. If Whidbey Telcom can put all their phone lines and DSL lines underground, so can PSE.”

Candace Allen of Useless Bay Shores said she has been without power for 156 hours since November.

“Despite using considerably less electricity during November and December, our electric bill has not gone down, because PSE raised rates 18 percent from a year ago and 26 percent over the last two years. PSE customers will be hit with another rate increase within the month,” she said.

“Burying power cables is the long-term solution to wind-blown lines,” said Hal Seligson of Langley.

“However, even if started tomorrow, it will take time. Someone needs to give more attention to ongoing maintenance to keep trees from hitting existing strung lines,” he said.

Living without power

Even so, Islanders such as Seligson said they are finding ways to adapt to the power outages.

“Marilee and I have grown accustomed to the short outages. We have no generator – we are considering getting one – but we kept much of our refrigerated foods on ice in our cooler; kept warm and cooked with our propane fireplace and range-top,” he said.

“We’ve enjoyed more good times with our neighbors over shared meals, wine, and good conversation,” Seligson added.

“We use wood heat and can cook on wood stove. We have emergency lanterns that run on batteries and propane” said Paul Mathews of Fox Spit Road in Langley.

Though lack of electricity knocks out water pressure in his home, the longest outage Mathews has had to face has been for 60 hours or so.

“We’re glad to be alive and living on Whidbey. This is just one of the things that keeps the population density light, which we like,” he said.

“I have to say we are much better off than most because we have a generator. However, outage number umpy-ump gets a little bit old,” said Christine Nyburg.

“The biggest problem I have had with the outages other than lots of dirty laundry is that it directly impacts my work, which is all on the computer. I really don’t know what the economic impact is of all of these outages, but at CKWebsites, our December income was down a good chunk,” Nyburg said.

Kim Olmstead of Greenbank uses power outages to pass down family traditions to his daughter that he learned from his grandmother.

“I grew up high in the Cascade wilderness, up north about 150 miles from here. Living off the land was a way of life, and we were out of power for weeks at a time,” Olmstead recalled

“My grandmother taught me at an early age how to cook a variety of things on a wood stove, with cast iron cookware. I have taken advantage of these frequent power outages to pass this knowledge onto my 14-year-old daughter,” he said.

“Our friends and family know that we will always have a warm home, a warm meal on the stove, water to share, and room for them to sleep over,” he added.