Three people died and several hundred thousand lost power in a fierce windstorm that ripped across Washington state, causing major river flooding, highway mudslides and road closures throughout Tuesday.
The storm’s strong winds turned deadly in the afternoon, when the system peaked in the Seattle metro area.
The first reported fatality, around 2 p.m., occurred in the Monroe area, where a tree fell on a car, killing the man inside. No one else was injured when the tree came down along the Ben Howard Road between Monroe and Sultan, Snohomish County Fire District 5 Chief Merlin Halverson said. The man was believed to be in his 20s.
Less than two hours later, a tree fell in Spokane and killed a woman in her 50s, police reported. A woman driving in the area also died after a tree fell over Highway 904, about 5 miles east of Cheney, according to a Washington State Patrol spokesman.
Medical investigators had not yet identified them.
A man, believed to be in his late 50s, was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle around 4:20 p.m. with severe burns after he touched an electrified fence at his home in Sultan, Halverson said. Wind knocked a power line onto the fence about 600 feet away, sending “tens of thousands” of volts through him, Halverson said.
A young man tried helping him before medics arrived, and Halverson said he’s surprised the young man was not also injured.
The region saw wind gusts in the 60 mph range throughout the day, continuing a pattern of on-again, off-again storms for days across the state. More than 300,000 electrical customers were without power in the region.
Rainfall in Seattle and the surrounding area was relatively low, about 1.25 inches since Monday afternoon, National Weather Service meteorologist Chris Burke said.
And though the Tuesday storm’s intensity ebbed by night, rising rivers still threatened homes and lowlands.