Brisk winds overnight knocked down some trees and caused small, scattered power outages across Whidbey Island, but no injuries were reported, officials said Monday morning.
Wind gusts to 47 miles per hours were reported at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Oak Harbor shortly after 8 a.m. Monday, and gusts in the low 40-mph range were reported at Langley throughout Sunday night and Monday morning, said Chris Burke of the National Weather Service in Seattle.
Wind gusts from out of the west were expected to continue throughout the day Monday, diminishing by 9 p.m., Burke said.
Trees were blown down on four roadways between 10:30 p.m. Sunday and 6 a.m. Monday in South Whidbey, Island County Fire District 3 Deputy Chief Mike Cotton said.
Traffic was blocked for a short time at Quade Road near Maxwelton and Ewing roads Sunday night, and at Campbell Road near Highway 525, at Wahl Road and at Lone Lake Road early Monday morning, Cotton said.
Also around 6 a.m. Monday, smoking branches were reported on power lines near Campbell Road and Highway 525, he said.
Puget Sound Energy reported small outages affecting fewer than 10 customers each at various Whidbey locations, said Abigail Elliott, a PSE spokeswoman.
“Just a few customers here and there,” she said. She said crews were repairing outages as they were reported.
Meanwhile, on Sunday morning a 20-foot pleasure boat was found overturned and washed up on the beach at Admiralty Inlet north of South Whidbey State Park.
Neighbors called the Coast Guard, who determined that the boat had been unoccupied, and the owners were contacted.
Mike Wiatt of Greenbank, a resident of the area, said three men in a small aluminum boat arrived early Sunday afternoon to retrieve the beached craft. Failing to right the overturned boat, they began towing it semi-submerged toward Lagoon Point as darkness fell, Wiatt said.
“It was pitch dark and the seas were really rocking, so who knows where they ended up last night,” Wiatt said in an e-mail to the Record.
Burke of the National Weather Service said gale warnings were in effect in all coastal waters, and that the winds were creating a convergence zone near the King-Snohomish County line, which could result in thunderstorms later in the day Monday.
